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'EARLY TO BED 

AND 

EARLY TO RISE" 



"Twenty Years in Hell with 
The Beef Trust" 



"FACTS, NOT FICTION" 

J 



Roger ,R. Shiel 



INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 
1909 



S.5 



By tr»"*:fVr 
The White House 
March 3rd, 1913 



INTRODUCTION. 

There are many important questions before the Ameri- 
can people. Two of them touch in some degree all the peo- 
ple. One of these two is the importance of government en- 
couragement to live stock raisers to induce them to improve 
the grade of their stock, in order, first, to make stock rais- 
ing more profitable to the breeder, and, second, that the 
people may get the very best that can be produced, espe- 
cially of the stock utilized for food. The other question is 
the importance of compelling slaughterers, packers and 
butchers to be honest and supgly teethe people as first class 
only what is first class, and riot, palm, off on them an in- 
ferior grade at first-Scl^sS 5 pHces. Added to this question 
is the one of making ' unlawful any combination between 
buyers, slaughterers or packers for the forcing of prices 
upward on the product to the consumer, and downward to 
the producer. 

A discussion before the people of these important ques- 
tions ought always to be by one who has ample knowledge 
of the subject and not by a mere theorist. Anybody can 
theorize, and theories are too often like dreams, having 
nothing more substantial for a basis than a bad digestion. 
The following pages were prepared by Mr. Roger R. Shiel. 
Among live stock raisers and among live stock buyers, such 
as the owners of the great meat shops of New York, Phila- 
delphia, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago and "Washington, and 
among the packing houses, both large and small, there is 
no more familiar name than that of Roger R. Shiel, better 
known as ' ' Rhody. ' ' For forty years or more he has been 

(3) 



4 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

one of the largest buyers of cattle, hog: and sheep in the 
United States, especially of high gra'le stock. He never 
dealt in the poorer grades. He has had very much to do 
with inducing hog, sheep and eattle raisers ' to improve 
their stock, and has been an ardent preacher of the doctrine 
that only high, grades should be permitted to be raised by 
the farmers and ranchmen. He has earnestly advocated act- 
ive interference of the government in this matter, by fol- 
lowing the example of Denmark, France and other Euro- 
pean countries. 

While Mr. Shiel is familiarly known to all live stock 
producers and all live stock buyers, his name is not so well 
known to all the people, and not knowing him they may be 
led to doubt some of the startling facts he now gives to the 
public, especially those in relation to the despotism of the 
Beef Trust. Hence, it is proper to say that Mr. Shiel has 
spent more than three hundred thousand dollars in fighting 
this gigantic oppressor, a fight he carried on for more than 
twenty years. 

While engaged in a business where he bought from two 
million to five million dollars' worth of live stock annually, 
Mr. Shiel has found time to take an active interest in poli- 
tics. At every Republican National convention, beginning 
with that of 1868, when General Grant was nominated the 
first time, Mr. Shiel has been a familiar figure, and he has 
campaigned in Indiana with almost every one of the great 
Republican orators who have visited that State, including 
such men as Allison, Hawley, Cullom, Fry, General Coggs- 
well, Hoar, General Gibson, Sherman, Foraker, Bradley, 
Harlan, Gen. George F. Sheridan, John Finnerty, John 
Scanlon and Corporal Tanner, and has always been highly 
regarded by those men for his sterling worth. 



With the Beef Trust 5 

Mr. Shiel began life as a farmer boy, as he tells in this 
little book. Soon after the war between the States began 
he entered the army of the Union, at the age of eighteen, 
and remained until its close. He fought in nearly ever}' 
battle of the Army of the Cumberland from Shiloh to Ben- 
tonville. At one period of his army service he was an or- 
derly for General Sheridan, and afterward for Gen. Judson 
Kilpatrick, and those two gallant officers held him in high 
esteem until their death. It was the advice of General 
Kilpatrick which led Mr. Shiel, on his return from the 
army, to abandon active farm life and engage in commer- 
cial pursuits. The close of the war found young Shiel, like 
most of the soldiers, with little ready cash, as there was 
but small chance to save out of the pittance of sixteen dol- 
lars a month. Full of energy and of confidence in himself, 
and following the advice given him by his friend, General 
Kilpatrick, he invested his little capital in the purchase of 
eight head of cattle at Strawtown in his native county, took 
them to Indianapolis and sold them to such advantage that 
he had a profit of $80. Thus he began his career as a dealer 
in cattle, hogs and sheep, a business that grew, under his 
intelligent management to gigantic proportions. 

All his life Mr. Shiel has been a sterling and loyal son 
of the Roman Catholic church, but has never been a bigot. 
His heart and his purse have always been open to every 
deserving object, and there has not, possibly, been a church 
of any denomination built in Indianapolis during his more 
than forty years' residence in that city, to which he has not 
liberally contributed. Every hospital, every charitable, 
benevolent or educational institution has found a liberal 
friend in him. Very recently he gave $2,000 to the Y. M. 



6 Twenty Years in Hell 

C. A. of Indianapolis, and several hundred dollars to the 
Y. W. C. A. of the same city, and to Butler University. 

I mention these things not in the way of boasting of 
what Mr. Shiel has done, or of the friendship felt for him 
by many of the great men of the nation, but simply to 
show the readers of this little book that his statements are 
worthy of credence and may be accepted by them as true. 
So far as a very busy life would permit he has been a close 
student of economics, and his studies have led him to the 
conclusion that the welfare of the country depends upon 
the welfare of the producer and the honesty of those who 
supply the people with their food products. Hence he has 
always fearlessly exposed the wrong doings of the packers, 
and the oppressions of the Beef Trust that have made those 
wrong doings possible. He is always earnest, always ardent, 
always hopeful, and fully believes the time will come when 
the strong hand of the government will crush out all trusts 
operated in the constraint of trade and give all the peo- 
ple an equal chance. 

I have known Mr. Shiel practically all his life, having 
been born in the same county, and served in the army with 
him. For thirty years I have known him intimately, and 
have had personal knowledge of his fight against the Beef 
Trust, and of his untiring efforts to promote the breeding 
of the highest grade of stock by the farmers of the West, 
and of the proportions to which his business had grown 
from his first little venture of eight head of cattle at 
Strawtown. I write this introduction to his little book to 
bear willing testimony to his worth as I have known it. 

W. IT. Smith. 




ROGER R. 8HIEL. 



Biography of Roger R. Shiel 



I came from an old, well known family in Ireland. 
My great-great-uncle Richard Lalor Shiel, was one of 
the best known men back in the early days. Anyone can 
find in any library a book of his speeches, he having been 
one of the greatest orators Ireland ever produced. He died 
about 1835. My great-uncle Michael Shiel was born in 
Cork county, Ireland, and came to America some time 
early in 1820. He first settled in Pennsylvania and ac- 
quired the title of General from being connected with 
militia at that time. In about 1825 he settled in the 
wilderness of Indiana and laid off a town and postoffice, 
afterwards known as Shielville. It retained that name 
until recently. It is now called Atlanta. The railroad 
missed it about a mile and named the station for Shiel- 
ville, Buenavista. There being a contention between 
Buenavista and Shielville about the postoffice being called 
Shielville, the name of the town changed a few years ago 
to that of Atlanta, and the same name was given to the 
postoffice. Shielville is situated on the line of Tipton and 
Hamilton counties, a part of the farm was in each of the 
two counties. He was the first justice of the peace in 
that section of the country, and started the first general 
store in that section. He married and reared a large 
family ; his oldest son, James, died a few years ago at the 
age of about ninety years. In about 1850 James took his 
father's place as justice of the peace and continued to 

(7) 



8 Twenty Teaks in Hell 

hold that office for a number of years. He settled prac- 
tically all the estates in that section, and the Shiel family 
maintained the Catholic Church at Tipton until it has 
grown to be a very large one. 

My father, Patrick Shiel, was the oldest of his father's 
children. He was born on a farm near Clonmell, Ireland, 
in the county of Cork. He married Alice Casey about 
1826, a native of Tipperary county. Both my parents 
were born in 1805. My mother used to tell me that their 
parents made the match as parents did in those days. 
There was considerable emigration at that time. So 
father sold his interest in the farm, or rather his father 
took it and gave him about $3,000, and my mother's 
father gave her a like amount. They sailed for America, 
coming over in about forty-five days. They had one 
child at that time, John. They landed in New York and, 
like most people who have money, spent a large part of 
their first fortunes in sight-seeing. They then went to 
Pittsburg for awhile, and then to Cincinnati, where they 
remained till their money was about all gone. They 
were both well educated. 

My father finally hunted up his uncle, the General, 
who lived at Shielville about ten miles from Strawtown. 
My father bought a small tract of land, about thirty 
acres being clear, with a log cabin on it in which I was 
born; shortly afterwards he built a hewed log house and 
plastered it with lime, a new thing in that country at that- 
time. He soon got to be a contractor, constructing mill- 
dams and other general public work, but was a poor 
farmer and neglected the education of all his children. 
In fact the nearest school was two or three miles, to 



With the Beef Trttst 9 

attend which we had to go through a dense wood and 
had to blaze the trees to find our way from my father's 
house. My parents had twelve children born to them, 
three of whom died as infants ; there were five boys, John, 
who died in the Mexican War, James K., who recently 
died at the age of sixty-nine, myself, Roger R., William, 
who died ten years ago and Terrence M. the baby, who 
is still living and is fifty-eight years old. James K. and 
myself and brother William served in the Union Army. 
There were four girls, Ellen and Catherine, who are dead, 
and Margaret and Lizzie, who are still living. 

It is hard to get the ages of the Shiel family. They 
are like women in that respect, they don't want to give 
their ages. My great-uncle, the General, has two chil- 
dren living, but they do not know their ages, and do not 
want to know them. He had four sons, James, Thomas, 
John and Michael, and four daughters, Bridget, Cathe- 
rine, Margaret and Victoria. He gave all his children 
a good education. 

I often heard my mother speak of the Caseys being 
a fighting family, always being iagainst England. A 
cousin of hers has recently been one of the Irish leaders 
in Parliament for several years. She was a devout and 
earnest member of the Catholic Church. Every night 
at about nine o'clock she had all her children repeat the 
rosary, and about nine o'clock on each Sunday morning 
she called the family in and had morning service with 
their catechism. In this she never failed. At that time 
there were no priests nearer than Port Wayne, which was 
about 100 miles distant. I was two years old before I 
was baptized. There had been no priest in that part of 



10 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

the State for more than two years. The priest, when he 
visited that section, always stopped with the General, and 
celebrated mass at his house. On his periodical visits 
all the children for many miles around would be taken 
there to be baptized. My mother said, there were about 
fifty or sixty baptized when I was. The Shiel family, 
with very few exceptions, have been loyal to the faith. 

The following personal estimate of me appeared in 
a previous pamphlet edition of much of the matter re- 
produced here over the signature of the publishers. As 
to the facts I would state them myself, since they are 
correct, but since the words expressing them are more 
appropriate than I might use I here present the sketch 
in its entirety: 

"The undersigned publishers of this ' brief, ' or pam- 
phlet, feel that, in the strictest propriety, they owe no 
apology for making personal mention of the inspirer and 
collector of the very valuable information which fills its 
pages. On the contrary, they are convinced that they 
would be derelict were they to fail to make at least pass- 
ing reference to Mr. Shiel, and especially now since he is 
in South America on his vacation. 

' ' And yet what to say is a harder matter to decide than 
is the question of the fitness of saying something. For 
over forty years in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky 
the familiar phrase "Rhody Shiel" has been a name to 
conjure by in politics, in business and in the high order 
of patriotism which characterizes the public-spirited citi- 
zen and the brave solder. The thousands of his personal 
acquaintances and friends who have been and are among 
the first citizens of the country, from the days of Presi- 



With the Beef Trust 11 

dent Grant to those of President Harrison, President 
McKinley, and our own President Roosevelt — these are 
they who have heard and yet hear of Mr. Shiel as 'a dia- 
mond in the rough/ but who recognize the diamond just 
the same. 

6 i All such men bow before the unselfish spirit which has 
animated Mr. Shiel in other public matters as well as in 
the collection of the material here presented in aid of the 
work to be accomplished by President Roosevelt's ' Com- 
mission on Country Life ' ; and every citizen, whether 
on the farm, in the workshop or in the counting room, 
owes a debt of gratitude to our "Rhody," not alone for 
the deed, but also for the will with which he sets about its 
accomplishment. 

"From the History of the Republican National Conven- 
tion of 1908 we take and subjoin the following : 

" 'Mr. Shiel was formerly one of the largest live stock 
brokers in the United States, but now is retired. He was 
one of the strongest supporters of Mr. Taft in the Con- 
vention, and was always a picturesque figure in the Con- 
vention and about the hotel lobbies. He resides in Indi- 
anapolis, and has had an eventful career. He was a 
strong supporter of Governor Morton in 1876, of Presi- 
dent Grant in 1880, of President Arthur in 1884 and of 
President Harrison in 1888 and 1892, at which times he 
was a delegate. He was nominated for Treasurer of State 
with Mr. Blaine in 1884 and for Treasurer of Marion 
county and the City of Indianapolis in 1892, on the ticket 
with General Harrison. 

" 'He was born at Strawtown, Indiana, August 19th, 
1843, of Irish parents, who came to this country from Ire- 



12 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

land in 1826. He enlisted in the Union army at the age 
of eighteen, and went through the War of the Rebellion 
honorably. He was in the Thirty-ninth Indiana Mounted 
Infantry, later the Eighth Indiana Cavalry. He was 
Orderly for General Sheridan around Tullahoma, was 
wounded at Chickamauga on Sunday at the Widow 
Glenn's house, and was in the Rusaw raid at Montgomery, 
Alabama, and the McCook raid around Atlanta. He also 
served as Kilpatrick's Orderly around Atlanta, and 
marched to the sea with General Sherman. He was with 
the escort that went out to meet General Johnson the day 
of the surrender to Sherman. He was also in the battle of 
Shiloh and the battle of Perryville, being taken prisoner 
on the latter occasion. He was in the battle of Stone 
River, the battles arround Atlanta, and all of the engage- 
ments in which Kilpatrick was engaged on the march to 
the sea and through the Carolinas. 

" 'At the close of the War he returned to Indianapolis 
and engaged in the live stock business. During his life he 
has probably done business to the extent of a hundred mil- 
lion dollars in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky. . 

" 'As he expressed it to the writer of this sketch," "I 
have always been a contributor and active worker in 
politics, but this time I attended the Convention largely 
to meet my old-time friends, and to render any service 
that I might toward the nomination of Mr. Taft.' 

"He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
which he thinks is good enough for any patriot. 

" 'In Indianapolis, in 1882, he married Julie Elizabeth 
Pope, who has borne him four children — Alice Julia, 24; 
Walter Roger, 23; Edna Wmnifred, 20, and Erwic Har- 
rison, 16.' " 



PREFACE' 



All my manhood life I have been dealing with farmers. 
Hence I became greatly interested in the efforts of Presi- 
dent Roosevelt to better the conditions of the farming com- 
munity, and I took the liberty to address him a letter, com- 
mending his efforts and pointing out some ways in which 
I thought the good work he was interested in could be more 
effectually accomplished. That letter he referred to the 
Country Life Commission. 

The Commission replied by asking me to give them some 
additional information along the same line. This request 
reached me four days before I was to start on a trip through 
South America and Cuba, so I had but a few days to pre- 
pare the data asked for, but I complied with their request 
as best I could. 

On my return to the United States I found a number of 
letters on the subject awaiting me, together with other let- 
ters referring to oppressions of the Beef Trust and the im- 
pure character of much of the meats and provisions they 
were supplying to the people. With these letters before me 
I thought it best to add materially to my first reply to the 
request of the Commission, and go further and explain some 
of the things that had been done to the farmers, and also to 
take up the agitation at this time regarding the tariff. In 
order to do this I have had to show what the tariff has done 
in helping to build up the Trusts — all the gigantic Trusts, 
more or less, have been made by the tariff. While I am not 

(13) 



14 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

a free trader and never have been, still I cannot see why the 
rich should be protected and made richer and the poor 
neglected. 

Now, of course, all of this is in a way rambling, as I have 
had only about three weeks to prepare the same. There is 
a considerable repetition in it, which you will readily see, 
but there is no real repetition even in the speeches that I 
made. You will find that there is lots of new meat in it. 
I expect at a later date during the summer to amend this 
brief and put it in a book form, with probably as much as 
three or four hundred pages, and give it the widest circula- 
tion possible, but T can see the necessity now of getting 
this out during this pendency of the tariff bill, as I may be 
able to turn some light on some of the members of the 
Senate and House, as I believe I understand the tariff thor- 
oughly so far as the workings of the Trusts, in this par- 
ticular line. I have been dealing directly on this subject, 
and many members of the House and Senate do not appear 
to have much real knowledge of the working of the Trusts 
on this point. 

You understand, you will have to read each article with 
great care in order to get intelligently the ideas I want to 
convey. I want to particularly call your attention to the 
Denmark part, which was obtained by me at considerable 
cost, as I employed the ablest men in the country to obtain 
this information accurately for me. Also note what I have 
to say about the business men, and what the business men 
have to say in reply to my inquiries. It is well to read 
every letter in this brief. These are the very best men in 
the country, and in the next book I expect to strengthen it 
with many others who have had experience dating back for 



With the Beef Trust 15 

fifty years in business and have been successful in their 
various pursuits. 

I want you to read what the Squires have done, and it 
would be well if every school in every township of the 
United States would take up and teach the life and works 
of Richard Webber of New York. He was one of the great- 
est benefactors that ever lived in this country. He had no 
place for anything but the purest of foods in his house. 
Neither he nor Squire ever let anything go out of his 
house unless it had been thoroughly cured. I also want you 
to note what I have had to say about George B. Wilson and 
his balance sheet. This is a very essential thing, and ought 
to be taught in the schools. They ought to teach economy 
to the young, teach them a way to know whether they are 
economizing or not, and that is by having them keep a strict 
and accurate account of all their expenditures. 

I required all my children, two sons and two daughters, 
to keep an accurate account of their expenditures, and make 
me out a monthly balance sheet. If their balance sheet was 
not correct I deducted $2 from their next monthly allow- 
ance. I began making each of my children a regular allow- 
ance for their own use at a very early age. My oldest son 
was very accurate and his balance sheet was always cor- 
rectly made out. I never found an occasion to deduct any- 
thing from his allowance. He went to Purdue University 
and after a course of three years graduated as a Civil En- 
gineer. He was a thorough student and applied himself all 
the time and always lived within his allowance. During 
his vacations I made him more liberal allowances and he 
traveled a great deal, as I considered traveling to be a 
liberal educator itself. With him it was always get up 
earl v. 



16 Twenty Years in Hell 

My younger son was hard to put to bed and was hard to 
get up again in the morning. He was not as close and as 
accurate in his balance sheet as his brother. My two 
daughters both graduated and tried to live inside of their 
allowance, but I think they sometimes worked their mother 
on the side. They always made a very correct balance 
sheet. If every school would teach the method and impor- 
tance of a balance sheet it would be much better than Ger- 
man or French. It would be better to require the boys to 
count the apples on the trees and to prune the trees and 
vines than to go fishing. Application is the successful rule 
of life. 

In the stock yards where I have done business there were 
practically none of the firms there that kept books ac- 
curately or got out a balance sheet. When the days' work 
was done they would rush out, and maybe they would be 
50 dollars or 50 cents short, or even in their cash, some- 
times 100 dollars or 100 cents short of the money that was 
paid in or the money that was paid out, as the case might 
be ; and of course there being no balance sheet there was no 
way of telling how the business stood at the end of the day. 
I have seen my bookkeepers work till twelve and one o'clock 
at night trying to find a discrepancy of ten cents, or even a 
cent, in order to get an accurate balance sheet. All first- 
class business men will insist on having a balance sheet. 

I regret that I have not space enough to mention each 
individual who has furnished a letter, and to comment on 
them. 

Note : Thirty-five or forty years ago business men were 
known by their first names — John P. Squire was known as 
John P. ; Timothy Eastman as Tim ; Richard Webber as 



With the Beef Trust 17 

Dick ; Joe Rawson as Joe ; Isaac Loder as Ike ; Train Cald- 
well as Train ; Simon Muld as Si ; Nelson Morris as Nelse ; 
Philip Armour as Phil ; Samuel Allerton as Sam, and Aid- 
rich was not known at all in the trade, the particulars of 
which you will notice in the book. 

You will see I have put some politics in the book. The 
fact is, 4egislation is practically controlled by one party or 
another, or by the caucus of one party or another, which to 
my mind is a thing that should be wiped out. A legislator 
who permits his party caucus, either in the Senate or in the 
House, to control his vote on things that he knows are not 
right, or are not to the best interests of the community 
where he lives, or in fact for the whole country, should not 
be there. May I ask you if that is not so? That is why 
there are some political speeches in this, and why I am 
showing how the Beef Trust had me twenty years in hell. 
Had I seen when they commenced on me more than twenty 
years ago what it was going to lead to, I would have aban- 
doned my chosen line of business and gone into something 
else, but I did not realize their strength at the time. John 
P. Squire and I talked about it. He left an estate worth 
millions, and left millions that the Trust or anybody else 
could not get hold of, as he was a very large real estate 
holder in Boston and East Cambridge. He incorporated 
his packing house. He said to me one day that something 
might happen ; they would want to break that house also, 
so he fixed it, sometime in the '90 's, into a corporation, and 
all his large real estate holding in trust in charge of his 
family — thereby his estate could not be impaired by the 
failure of his corporation. The fact is the corporation was 
solvent, had money enough to pay off everybody, but all the 

[2] 



18 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

banks doubled on him and made a run on two of the banks 
which were large lenders to the Squire people. This was 
at the time when the packing house, an eight-story building, 
was filled with pork, lard and provisions, from cellar to gar- 
ret, and when they were slaughtering from 5,000 to 6,000 
hogs daily. The Trust knew all this and took the oppor- 
tunity to attempt to crush him, and it did force his com- 
pany into the hands of a receiver, a man of their own selec- 
tion. The Beef Trust finally reorganized the company with 
a majority of the directors taken from their own men and 
took the concern out of the hands of the receiver. Much 
more can be said on this, but I will not say any more at this 
time. 

I want to say that if I have said anything in this brief 
about any corporation or any individual that is not true, I 
am perfectly responsible and challenge them to bring suit 
against me, and I will convince the public by substantiating 
any statements I have made. 

' Note : I am a very superstitious man, and I have men- 
tioned in the brief a number who were burned to death, but 
in the next brief I will show that while they had me in hell, 
I saw something happening to each and every individual en- 
gaged in the conspiracy to put me out of business and break 
me up. There have been all kinds of suicides, all kinds of 
divorces, all kinds of deaths happening to the chief con- 
spirators against me. 

I have seen a man who often sat in the same pew in my 
church and at the same time was feeding from 500 to 600 
hogs on slop it was said he obtained surreptitiously from the 
penitentiary of which he was warden, the slops being prop- 
erly the property of the State. At one time he was very 



With the Beef Trust 19 

much interested in securing a franchise for a street railway 
and it was charged that a great deal of bribery was going 
on. It was said that while he was handing out the bribery 
money he wore a mask in order that no one could swear to 
his identity. Another man w T ho was engaged at the same 
time in this work of handing out money to the bribed wore 
a mask, but afterwards went blind. These two men both 
died, one poor and the other it was said worth five million 
or six million dollars. 

Night after night I walked the floor while in this hell, 
and had two doctors, a lawyer and a priest. They thought 
I was going to die, but the "Lord giveth and the Lord 
taketh awa}^ ; blessed be the name of the Lord. ' ' My health 
is now better than it has been for twenty-five years — it has 
returned to me in the last two years, since I abandoned this 
fight, and since they put me out of business at Kankakee, 
Illinois (I am not as old by ten years as my father was, or 
within 25 of what my mother was when they died). I 
have not tried to do any business in the stock yards ; in fact 
I could not. I intended to open up a local house some 
place, but I find that they are following me yet. I have at 
least twenty years of the best part of my life remaining, 
so far as money making is concerned, in the line of any 
business I may enter upon. Of course I have made money 
on real estate and otherwise, but for six or eight years I 
wa-s confined to my home half the time on account of my 
health being all broken down because of the persecutions 
of this damnable Meat Trust. 

I want to call your especial attention to Chief Chemist 
Wiley. When he dies there will be a monument erected to 
him. He has saved millions of lives by educating the peo- 



20 Twenty Years in Hell 

pie against adulterated foods and liquors. There is no 
greater fraud than by taking one barrel of whiskey and 
making twenty barrels out of it, which was the case in 
Louisville and has been the case in many other places. 
They caught a Jew in Louisville once, an Irishman at some 
other place doing this. The Jew and the Irish, when they 
go wrong, go very wrong. Adulterated liquors poison the 
mind probably more than adulterated food. The Amer- 
ican people, especially in the cities, are getting nothing 
in the way of high grade meats. 

Mr. Smith, who has edited this brief, has been con- 
nected with the Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette as its cor- 
respondent for many years. It was Mural Halstead's 
paper and probably the best in Cincinnati. He has written 
a history of Indiana and also Vice-President Fairbanks 's 
history. He has known me since a boy. He is one of the 
best posted men in the country as to what is going on. 

I trust I have made it clear who I am and what I have 
done. 

Lew Wallace, James Whitcomb Riley, Booth Tarking- 
ton, George Ade, Maurice Thompson, Charles Major and 
George Barr McCutcheon are all noted authors ; they were 
all friends of mine. Their writings were all fiction-dreams 
or freaks of imagination. There is no fiction — no dreams 
in "Early to Bed and Early to Rise," and Twenty Years in 
Hell. 



THE 



Lack of Improvement in Agriculture 

LIVE STOCK, POULTRY, ETC. 



A COMPARATIVE DISCUSSION FOR THE 
"COMMISSION ON COUNTRY LIFE" 

BY 

MR. R. R. SH1EL 

of Indianapolis 
AND OTHER WELL-INFORMED MEN 



MR. R. R. SHIEL'S LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT. 

Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, President, Washington, D. C: 

My Dear Sir — Please note the enclosed clipping from 
the Cincinnati Enquirer of the 14th. regarding your 
"Country Life Commission's" session at Lexington, Ky., 
which will explain itself. I think this Commission ought 
to deal more particularly with the mountain country — cane- 
brakes in the South. Lexington is in an old, well settled 
and established country. The betterment should go on in 
the interior and help build up and develop there where it is 
needed the most. 

From observations in my recent travels in Kentucky, 
Eastern Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, Northern Georgia, 
Northern Alabama, Arkansas and Southern Missouri, I 
want to call your attention to a matter which I have had in 
mind a long time, and that is, the improvement of the live 

(21) 



22 Twenty Yeaks iist Hell 

stock and poultry, especially in the South, and in many 
States in the hilly and mountainous parts of the North. 

I spent a day in the Louisville stockyards before going 
South and I saw the same old canebrake and mountain cat- 
tle there — steers, three and four years old, weighing 500 , 
600 and 700 pounds, and the same kind of sheep that I saw 
during the war and which we used to forage in the moun- 
tains of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and 
North Carolina, sheep with no wool on their bellies and 
weighing only sixty to seventy pounds. 

While on my travels, noticing them from the railroad, 
I could see no difference in the grade of live stock, except 
in Middle Tennessee and the better parts of Kentucky, from 
the kind we saw there during the war. 

I can remember sixty years back in Strawtown, Hamil- 
ton county, Indiana, thirty-five miles north of here on my 
father's farm, we had the old razor-back hogs and kept 
them a year and a half and two years before they matured, 
and we had the same old-fashioned cattle and poultry. 

Then there was a farmer by the name of David Cor- 
nelius, who came from Wayne County, which is Governor 
Morton's and Dudley Foulke's county, and one of the 
earliest settled counties in the State. He bought a good 
river farm in my father's township. He brought with him 
a thoroughbred bull and a number of thoroughbred cattle, 
hogs and poultry. Later I worked on his farm for two 
years at $8.00 per month. The adjoining farmers soon be- 
gan to breed to his thoroughbred cattle, hogs and poultry, 
and in a few years it extended throughout the township. 

In thai township today there is not a bull that is not a 
thoroughbred, nor a sheep that is not a half-breed or a 



With the Beef Trust 23 

thoroughbred, nor a hog raised that is not a half-breed or a 
thoroughbred, and the poultry the same. This same thing 
can be done in any of the eanebrake or mountain townships 
of the Southern States. Five Hereford short horned bulls or 
Polled Angus bulls at a cost of $50 per head would change 
the character of the cattle in four years and make them at 
least half thoroughbred ; five to ten bucks, at a cost of $8.00 
to $10.00 each, would change the character of the sheep in 
two years; twenty boars at the cost of $10.00 each would 
change the character of the hogs; five hundred dozen of 
eggs, at a cost of fifty cents a dozen, would change all the 
chickens; five hundred dozen of turkey eggs, at a cost of 
sixty cents a dozen, would change all the turkeys ; and the 
same could be done with the ducks and geese. 

I see a great future, especially in the mountain belts 
along the rivers, for the improvement and expansion of the 
chickens, turkeys and geese. An acre or two of alfalfa or 
of millet on the sides of a mountain or hill, where tobacco, 
corn or wheat can not be produced, together with what they 
will pick up in the way of beech nuts and other mast, such 
as they have in the mountainous districts, would furnish 
sufficient amount of feed to support the poultry. The fact 
is it does not take any more to feed the high grades than it 
takes to feed the inferior. 

There is a vast difference whether you have an old- 
fashioned turkey hen weighing seven to nine pounds 
dressed, or a high grade turkey hen weighing ten to fifteen 
pounds dressed; whether you have a hen chicken a year 
old, weighing two and one-half to three pounds dressed, 
or one weighing five to seven pounds ; whether you have a 
yearling steer or a two-year-old, weighing four to six hun- 



24 Twenty Years in Hell 

dred pounds alive, or one weighing nine to twelve hundred ; 
whether you have a hog at the age of two years weighing 
two hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds, or whether 
you have a hog at the age of six or eight months weighing 
two hundred and fifty pounds. 

I have bought thousands of hogs coming from the town- 
ship where I was reared, weighing two hundred and fifty 
pounds at the age of six or eight months, and thousands of 
cattle with the difference in the weights described above, 
and I have bought them also from every township of Joseph 
Cannon's district. 

During the years from '68 to 71 the firm of Stafford & 
Shiel was possibly the second or third largest of the ship- 
pers of live stock in the United States, Stafford lived in 
New Carlisle, Ohio, near Springfield. I am the Shiel, liv- 
ing in Indianapolis. Thirty-five or forty years ago I fre- 
quently sold a train load of cattle in a day at Hoboken, and 
I have sold as many as two train loads a day of live stock at 
Albany, New York, as these places were the stock markets 
for New York and New England. The hogs went principal- 
ly to John P. Squire & Co., Boston ; Charles P. North & Co., 
Boston; White, Pevey & Dexter, Worcester, and S. E. Mer- 
win & Co., New Haven. I have bought as much as a train 
load of Texas cattle at a time — the long-horned kind. The 
fact is, I bought the first cattle that came through this city. 
I have also bought hundreds of boat loads and train loads of 
the best cattle out of central Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and 
many from Kentucky for export. In truth, I bought the 
first export cattle for Mayer Goldsmith and Timothy East- 
man, of New York, and Nelson Morris, as they were the 
first exporters of cattle. 



With the Beef Trust 25 

Later I saw the West was coming to the front Avith im- 
proved stock, the same as they did in Hamilton County, and 
I bought car load after car load of thoroughbred Shorthorn, 
Hereford and Polled Angus bulls to ship to the West to go 
on the ranches. I encouraged Fowler & Venetta, at Fowler 
and Lafayette, Indiana, who were the largest Hereford 
breeders possibly in the country thirty years ago. to culti- 
vate the Western breed and get their thoroughbreds and 
half-breeds West to build up the Texas cattle. Some thirty 
years ago they shipped a boat load of their Herefords to 
South America to find a market for their surplus. 

I need not say much to you on this, for you have been 
West and know what they were, and ought to know what 
they are now. It has not been more than twenty-five or 
thirty years since General Wadsworth commenced to ship 
the Herefords West, and now his sons have no other kind 
on their ranches in Texas and other States. 

There can be much said on this and much done with it. 
I find the State of Indiana paying salaries to twenty-five 
or thirty men to look after the fish and game, and I find 
many other States and also the Government spending large 
sums of money on that line. Nothing, to my mind, would 
be farther reaching than the forcing of better live stock 
into sections that have been neglected on this point. I sug- 
gested this to President Harrison after he was elected and 
before he went to Washington, and took it up with him and 
Secretary Rusk after he got to Washington, and the meat 
inspection law came through Secretary Rusk and President 
Harrison largely from our conferences. 

There is no greater fraud known than meat. Note, 
there is not five per cent, of the cattle that are anywhere 



26 Twenty Years in Hell 

near the first grade, especially when feed is as high as it is 
now. There isn't fifteen per cent, that are second grade, 
or, in other words, there are not fifteen cars out of a hun- 
dred that will sell first or second. The medium and low 
grade cattle are selling now for practically what they have 
been selling for for years — possibly a half a dollar higher. 
There is where the dressed beef men make their big profit ; 
making the people believe that they are selling them fine 
quality meat when they are getting only a low grade. You 
cannot get a high grade of meat out of a low grade stock. 
The same will apply to poultry of all kinds. 

Let me cite you to an actual fact. While attending the 
Army of the Cumberland reunion at Chattanooga in Oc- 
tober, Secretary of the Association 0. A. Sommers took his 
wife, daughter and myself in an automobile to go over the 
Chickamauga battlefield. To my astonishment I saw then 
the same old-fashioned cattle as were there in 1863. Upon 
our return, about eight miles out of Chattanooga, near Ross- 
ville, and within a hundred yards of the boulevard, we came 
upon a farmer who had shot down a steer which looked like 
it weighed about five hundred pounds. He had hung it up 
between two trees by having his wife sit upon the long end 
of the pole, holding the steer up while two men were skin- 
ning it. They had it about half skinned. I said to Mr. 
Sommers that it reminded me of Grant's Memoirs, where 
Lincoln said to him when he went to the White House to 
get his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, 
' ' I kind of like your way of fighting ; you make them skin 
or hold a leg. ' ' They had the old lady holding up the bul- 
lock while the men skinned it. It reminded me of sixty 
years ago at Strawtown, and yet it was going on within 



With the Beef Tkust 27 

eight miles of Chattanooga with the same old cattle such as 
they had in Strawtown sixty years ago. 

I have never been much of a hunter, such as you have 
been, but I killed a wild turkey near Strawtown when I was 
about twelve years old. The woods were full of them then. 
I brought it home and the folks tried to make me believe 
I had found the turkey dead, and didn't want to cook it. I 
never had the courage to go hunting afterwards. 

Some twenty-five to thirty years ago I had more than 
a hundred customers in Lancaster, Chester and Burke 
counties, Pennsylvania, to whom I furnished stock cattle 
to feed. These three counties have more cattle on feed 
than the whole State of Indiana. They have a market at 
Lancaster, which has been established in the last fifteen or 
twenty years, for stock cattle, many of them coming from 
Canada, which has better stock. In fact, Buffalo forwards 
many stock cattle to Lancaster that come from Canada. 
But the canebrake or knot-head or "penny royal," old- 
fashioned cattle come to St. Louis, Louisville and Cincin- 
nati, and are forwarded on to be sold to the farmers in 
Pennsylvania and also to Buffalo to be sold to the New York 
farmers. It is a great fraud to sell these old-fashioned cat- 
tle, which won't take on the weight or make first or even 
third-class meat after they are fed, to the Pennsylvania and 
New York farmers, when they could be bred up in a few 
years and the farmers in Pennsylvania and New York would 
get better stock. Now as many as two hundred to three 
hundred cars of stock cattle are sold in Lancaster per week 
in the Summer and Fall of the year when the farmers take 
on their feeding cattle, where twenty years ago there was 
no market. 

Of course I could say the same of the number of custom- 



28 Twenty Years in Hell 

ers I had in New York State, in the interior and New York 
City, and also in Baltimore and throughout Maryland. At 
one time, twenty or thirty years ago, in the anthracite coal 
country, I furnished practically all of the cattle and hogs to 
the butchers in fifteen or twenty cities and towns, such as 
Pottsville, Shamokin, Scranton, Grirardville and Schuylkill. 
They took the very highest grades, and up to this time the 
dressed beef people have not been able to do any good there, 
as they kill their own cattle and they get their supplies from 
the New York and Pennsylvania feeders. They pay the best 
prices for the best stock. The miners want good meat, and 
you cannot palm off an old Jersey cow or bull or half -fatted 
stock on them. 

I bought for more than twenty years for the best butcher 
in the United States, Richard Webber, at One-hundred-and- 
twenty-third Street and Third Avenue, New York City. 
He took nothing but the highest grade stock that came to 
market. He never had a poor piece of meat in his shop. 

Pardon me for writing this long letter, but I think I 
understand this business. I have been thoroughly educated 
in it, while my book learning was neglected when a boy. I 
am a great reader of facts, but a poor reader of fiction. I 
never found I could do any good reading fiction. 

I believe that the Pure Pood Law, which you had passed, 
is the greatest law that has ever been enacted. Thousands 
of people have been poisoned by adulterated meats, foods 
and medicine. Your improvement of the Meat Inspection 
Law is also a great benefit. These two laws will add more 
renown to your administration than any others, while there 
are many excellent ones. 

Yours very truly, 

R. R. Shiel. 

November, 1908. 



With the Beef Trust 29 

COMMISSION'S LETTER TO MR. SHIEL. 



Commission on Country Life. 
Washington, D. C. 

K. H. Bailey, Chairman. 
Henry Wallace. 

GlFFORD PlNCHOT. 
K. L. BUTTERFIELD. 

Walter H. Page. 

Norval D. Kemp, Secretary to the Chairman. 

Ithaca, N. Y., November 25, 1908. 
R. E. Shiel, Shiel Apartment House, Indianapolis, Ind.: 

My Dear Sir — Your letter of the 21st addressed to Wil- 
liam Loeb, Jr., Secretary to the President, enclosing a letter 
to the President has been forwarded to the Commission on 
Country Life. We are very much interested in your discus- 
sion of the lack of progress made in the production of live 
stock and poultry in the South Central States. Can you 
make a similar comparative discussion of the quality of 
production in Indiana and Ohio, addressing it to this Com- 
mission at this office? We will appreciate your co-opera- 
tion. 

Yours very truly, 

Norval D. Kemp. 



MR. SHIEL 'S LETTER TO THE COMMISSION. 



Indianapolis, Ind., December, 1908. 
Commission on Country Life, Washington, D. C: 

Gentlemen — In reply to your request that I furnish you 
with a comparative discussion of the lack of progress in the 



30 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

production of high-class live stock and poultry in Indiana 
and Ohio, I have prepared a brief on this subject, made up 
largely of ] iters which I have received from the most in- 
telligent and best-informed men of my personal acquaint- 
ance in the localities in which they live. Many of them I 
have done business with, dating from 1865, and I know ab- 
solutely that they thoroughly understand the business and 
that their statements are facts, and, moreover, that they are 
as well versed on this subject as any farmers in Indiana, 
Illinois or Ohio. Many of them are college graduates. 

I wish I could take up this question with over a thou- 
sand men whom I have known and with whom I have done 
business in the States mentioned ; but the majority of them 
are dead, and I am now dealing with the living men among 
the very best farmers. 

The parties who have furnished me these facts 
are men of high character. I have bought hun- 
dreds of carloads of stock of them and others, and 
in every case I would rather they would weigh the 
stock than I, for they did business in a "Missouri" way, 
while today it is quite different. I always knew what I was 
getting and that I was receiving the correct weight, because 
I knew the men. I did not have to drive out and see the 
stock I was buying — it was just as good one year as another, 
and it would be just the same the year after. The stock 
was all bred alike and fattened alike, and was all high- 
grade, with no Jerseys sandwiched in. 

First, before taking up the different States and the let- 
ters which cover the conditions in each, I want to call your 
attention to a statement of the conditions in the breeding 
of stock in other countries, and how like conditions might 



With the Beef Trust 31 

be changed and improved by a similar process in our own. 
Much could be done with this. By all means thoroughbred 
live stock of all kinds should be put on the free list. This 
information I obtained at a very considerable cost to myself, 
aided by the services of the brightest man in the meat trade 
I ever knew. He spent over a year in thoroughly looking 
into this matter. In fact, he has been in all of these coun- 
tries twice, dealing with the most reliable and substantial 
people there. 

This takes us back to my first letter to President Roose- 
velt, where I speak about Fowler & Venetta, of Lafayette, 
Indiana, exporting Hereford cattle into South America, 
and my advice to them to go West, which they did. 

LIVE STOCK IN DENMARK AND OTHER COUNTRIES. 

A few years ago the Danish Government took up the 
matter of improving the quality of the hogs raised in that 
country, as it was its intention to have the farmers engage 
in the pork slaughtering business and supply fresh and 
cured pork, principally to Great Britain. 

The Danish breed of hogs was not satisfactory, and the 
authorities looked about to find where they could get the 
best breeds, or better breeds than they had, that would 
bring the most money when cured. 

They visited several countries and finally settled upon 
England as being the place to get hogs that suited them 
best. They purchased a large number of good males and 
females of the same breed, but at different places. Then 
they forced the male hogs to be changed every year to other 
sections, so they would not be interbred. Furthermore, 
they had veterinary surgeons and other inspectors go 



32 Twenty Years in Hell. 

through the whole of Denmark and sterilize, at a very young 
age, all animals that were not calculated to be bred from ; 
at the same time instructing the people what to do and how 
to do regarding the breeding, feeding and proper care of 
the stock. 

They strictly prohibited the farmers from breeding their 
own old-style stock and took every precaution to get away 
from the old breed and to introduce the new. This they 
have done very satisfactorily; so much so that they are 
now and have been for several years supplying a large 
amount of very superior meat to Great Britain, and getting 
the very best prices — generally higher prices than any meat 
from the United States or Canada — and almost as high as 
the finest Irish pork from Limerick, Waterford, Cork and 
Belfast. 

The Government took particular pains also to see that 
the small packing establishments were properly managed 
by first-class men who were experienced in curing, and that 
co-operative pork factories were established. The fact is, 
some of these pork factories are now run in connection with 
dairies, where butter and cheese are made. In addition, it 
was arranged that the farmers could be supplied with feed- 
ing stuffs at very reasonable rates from the depots where 
they delivered their hogs and milk. In fact, everything 
was done to foster the manufacture of a superior grade of 
pork, butter, eggs, cheese, etc. 

Danish meats are now regularly quoted in English pa- 
pers in such cities as London, Liverpool, Hull and in many 
other large cities in Great Britain. 

France has done much in the improvement of its stock ; 
in fact, they have all their horses sterilized except those re- 



With the Beef Trust 33 

served for breeding purposes, and the Government has an 
option on all male colts for army use, but nothing like what 
has been done in Denmark, for the Danes completely 
changed their entire breed in four or five years. 

The people in Uruguay, South America, and especially 
the province of Montevideo, have been within the last few 
years importing the same class of hogs that the Danes did 
from England, principally from Mr. Sanders Spencer in 
the midlands of England* 

It can be readily seen, then, that our neighbors in South 
America intend to produce a superior quality of pork, which 
will undoubtedly, in due time, be an important competitor 
with other countries. 

It is a noteworthy fact that South America has shipped 
more dressed beef of a very superior grade into Great 
Britain in the last few years than has the United States 
and Canada or any other country. 

CONDITIONS IN OHIO. 

I have not dealt much in Ohio in the last thirty-two 
years, especially since I established a stock yards in Indian- 
apolis; yet I have done considerable business in parts of 
Ohio, as I operated a stock yards in Cleveland some six or 
eight years ago. My knowledge of Ohio, however, is fairly 
good. The country there is not the same as it was thirty 
or forty years ago, particularly the northern part. The 
stock in northern Ohio is not nearly so good as in the cen- 
tral or southern sections. 

There is not a foot of land in Ohio that will not produce 
blue grass — even on the mountain or hillside — if properly 
cleared and ditched. In southern Ohio sheep will graze on 

[3] 



34 Twenty Years in Hell 

every foot of land if the scrub trees were cut down so that 
the shade would not deter the growth of the blue grass. It 
is a great waste to undertake to produce timber that will 
smother out enough blue grass to pay for the trees every 
few years. It will take forty years to produce a good tree, 
and a scrub beech, elm or oak would probably not be good 
in fifty years. 

While hogs and cattle in northern Ohio are much better 
than they were twenty-five to forty years ago, owing in part 
to ditching and other improvements on the farm, yet, as I 
have just said, they are not as good as in the central or 
southern parts of the State. Hogs from northern Ohio 
shrink two or three per cent, from gross to net weight — 
which runs five to eight pounds to the head — more than in 
central or southern Ohio. The fact is the stock is not the 
same, and there is a different character of feeding. The 
Michigan hogs are not as good as those of central Indiana, 
Illinois or central Ohio, as they will not produce by three 
per cent, as much meat. 

Forty years ago in passing through on what was known 
then as the "Bee" Line, now the "Big Four," and the Pan- 
handle, which is now the Pennsylvania road, I could see the 
sides of the hills covered in many places with little 
Merino sheep weighing from sixty to ninety pounds, some 
possibly weighing up to a hundred pounds. They were 
bred solely for wool, as they made a superior quality, but 
there was no profit in them for meat. In fact, they did 
not get fat enough to make good meat. At that time there 
were a great many swamps and sloughs on the lines of these 
roads, and they were all filled with wild grass where it was 
dry enough for grass to grow. 



With the Beef Teust 35 

I now see the same hills covered with practically as many 
or more sheep of new breeds, weighing, as a yearling or a 
two-year-old, from one hundred and twenty to one hundred 
and fifty pounds. The lambs of the old-fashioned ewes, at 
five and six months old, would weigh forty to fifty pounds, 
and the lambs of the new kind now will weigh at the same 
age something like seventy to eighty pounds. 

There is not, I repeat, a foot of land in Ohio that will 
not produce blue grass, and it is produced there now where 
the land has been properly drained and the hills and moun- 
tains cleared of the timber. Blue grass, as is well under- 
stood, will not grow under the shade of trees. Sheep will 
fatten on blue grass, and in fact will keep fat on it in the 
winter if the snow does not cover it so they cannot get to it ; 
but with cured alfalfa in the winter you can keep them fat 
all the year around. 

The same can be said of the sheep in Indiana, and also 
of the blue grass. Forty years ago Indiana had the old- 
fashioned kind of sheep, long wool, but of a much larger 
kind than those in Ohio, the kind that we sent to New Jer- 
sey for breeding early lambs. Thirty-two years ago, when 
we opened the Indianapolis stock yards, we received more 
sheep then in Indianapolis, coming from southern Indiana, 
and in fact southern Illinois and Kentucky, than were re- 
ceived in Chicago. There is nothing that has expanded 
faster than the production of sheep, and there is nothing 
more profitable to grow. They can graze on land where 
you cannot produce anything but blue grass or alfalfa. It 
is marvelous the wonderful expansion of sheep raising in 
the West in the last twenty years. 

Thirty or thirty-five years ago it was an unknown thing 



36 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

to export a sheep. I believe Hollis Bros., of Boston, were 
the first exporters of sheep. They buy space in a vessel for 
sheep and cattle, and can export a bullock weighing 1,700 
pounds at the same freight rates as one weighing 800 
pounds, and a sheep weighing one hundred and forty or 
one hundred and sixty pounds at the same freight as one of 
the old-fashioned kind weighing ninety pounds. 

There is no more profitable crop grown than blue grass, 
where it is properly cared for. In the South I could see all 
kinds of possibilities with blue grass and alfalfa, as the 
sheep can live on either in Winter without any other feed 
whatever, and the grass will grow all the year round. There 
is no other meat that is as wholesome as mutton, and it can- 
not be adulterated and put into cans as is done with a Jer- 
sey or the poorest kind of beef, and palmed off for the very 
best. One don't have to keep mutton in a refrigerator for 
a week or ten days to get it tender enough to eat. It is 
ready to eat the next day after it is killed. The expansion 
in this trade has been marvelous, but it is just beginning. 

One of the greatest projects that is being promoted in 
the interest of the farmers in Ohio who find a market for 
their live stock at the Cleveland stock yards, is the Belt 
Railroad which is now being built and which will encircle 
the city of Cleveland. It will connect with all railroads 
which bring stock into Cleveland, thereby obviating delays 
in the handling and delivery of the farmers' live stock, and 
the great loss to them in the way of deaths of animals and 
big shrinkage. It will also inure to their benefit in getting 
their stock early on the market, thereby gaining advantage 
of the best prices. This delay under the existing circum- 
stances has heretofore been unavoidable. 



With the Beef Trust 37 

I promoted this belt road about Cleveland, Ohio, a thing 
which I had been trying to do for twenty or thirty years, 
as I saw the necessity of it. I had a charter for it. All 
the shipments had to cross the two or three turn bridges 
on the Cuyahoga River at the lake in Cleveland, and I have 
had thousands of deaths in the shipping of live stock on ac- 
count of the poor handling and the three to six hours deten- 
tion, waiting to get through the turn bridges, which also 
caused a big shrinkage. 

It was said that a belt railroad could not be built around 
Cleveland. Having driven over the ground many times, 
and knowing the absolute necessity to Cleveland that such 
a line should be built, I concluded to make the effort ; and, 
to that end, I employed Mr. Morris DeFrees, who was the 
civil engineer in charge during the construction of the Belt 
Railroad we built around Indianapolis thirty-two years ago 
— the first belt railroad ever built in this country. 

Mr. DeFrees reported that the project was not feasible, 
owing to the excessive grades that would be encountered. 
His report did not discourage me. I then employed Mr. 
Joshua Abbott, a civil engineer of ability and large ex- 
perience. 

After making a number of surveys, Mr. Abbott reported 
that the desired grade of three-tenths of one per cent, (the 
grade insisted on by the railroads who would use the belfc) 
could be secured at enormous cost, by building through 
East Cleveland and crossing the Cuyahoga River and val- 
ley at an elevation of about one hundred fifty feet. 

We organized the Cleveland Belt Railroad, made our 
surveys, and furnished our maps and profiles to the rail- 
roads, all of which were entirely satisfactory to them. We 



38 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

thought we had the matter cinched, having negotiated for 
the money to build the line; but the ""powers" got onto it 
and concluded to take advantage of our efforts. We were 
ruled out, and the four-track belt line road around Cleve- 
land is now nearly completed, and on the line we had 
adopted. 

The "powers" became conscience-stricken, and gave us 
back the money which we had expended in our successful 
efforts in demonstrating the feasibility of a belt road 
around Cleveland. 

It will, I hope, be a pardonable digression for me to say 
that as regards Mr. Tom L. Johnson, one of the ' c powers, ' ' I 
"raised" him in my precinct at the Grand Hotel in Indian- 
apolis when he came here from Louisville with his father 
and bought the Indianapolis street railway line for 
$25,000. He was a Democrat. As to Mr. Tom Tag- 
gart, I "raised" him also in my precinct. He used to 
be a Republican. He came here as a waiter in the hotel 
and finally got to be manager of the Depot restaurant. 

Mr. E. O'Day, whose letter will explain itself, is the only 
man now living with whom I transacted business years ago 
at Mt. Sterling, Ohio, and. who is now located at London, 
Ohio. My first partner, James Flanders, who owned two 
thousand acres of land at Strawtown, .came from Mt. Ster- 
ling, Ohio, and he was a very large dealer in stock during 
the war. 

CONDITIONS IN INDIANA. 

The Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern starts out of Cin- 
cinnati and runs to St. Louis. All south of that line in 
our Hoosier State, which takes in about ten or fifteen 
counties, is not near as good in the way of live stock as it 



With the Beef Trust 39 

was forty years ago, with the exception possibly of two or 
three counties in the Pocket. The land is hilly and the bot- 
toms are wet and there has been little or no ditching. 

Spencer county, where the Nancy Hanks monument is 
and where Abraham Lincoln was brought up, is very little 
if any better now than it was then. There is not a foot of 
land in that county that will not grow blue grass and fruit 
if it is properly drained and cultivated. There is scarcely 
a county in the State that has made less progress than this 
county. The farmers have put in very few ditches ; there are 
lots of wild woods where you can see the old-fashioned cows 
and sheep with bells on them running practically uncared 
for — wild, I might say. There is not much difference in the 
progress in southern Indiana south of the Baltimore and 
Ohio Southwestern, with the exception of a few counties in 
the Pocket ; and in two or three counties north of the Balti- 
more and Ohio Southwestern very little, if anything, has 
been done to better the conditions of fifty years ago. 

Note what the Grahams say of Jefferson county, where 
everybody went to market in Madison sixty years ago. 
Also what Mr. Dean says of the fruit growing. Graham's 
father and Mr. Dean served in the army with me. 

The College at Hanover, in that county, has made no 
progress whatever. This is the school that the late Vice- 
President Hendricks attended, but did not graduate. 

The fact is, in southern Indiana, along with the old-fash- 
ioned sheep, old-fashioned cattle and old-fashioned swine 
and poultry, there are too many of the old-fashioned 
farmers ; that is, boys who were reared on the farms, whose 
fathers and grandfathers were farmers and perhaps early 
settlers— who have inherited the old-fashioned views con- 



40 Twenty Years in Hell 

eerning the old-fashioned Panning implements, the old-fash- 
ioned stock and poultry — men who still have the sheep and 
the eat tie with bolls on ; who have never taken advantage of 
up-to-date agricultural colleges ; who have farms where they 
raise corn fifty to seventy bushels to the acre and do not 
gather it until March or April. 

I have seen the same kind of farmers in Ohio, and in Illi- 
nois, but not so many in Illinois, for Western farmers are 
more progressive. This Fall and Winter, however, up to 
this time there are thousands of acres of corn in Indiana, 
Ohio and Illinois that has not yet been cribbed. These 
farmers go fishing and hunting when they ought to be gath- 
ering the corn and improving their land. Many of them 
buy very expensive farm machinery — sometimes on pay- 
ments — and do not build a shed ov any other covering over 
them, but leave them out in the weather until they are al- 
most ruined before the purchaser has finished paying for 
them. 

The men who sit around all day fishing are not doing 
any good. My average night's sleep has not exceeded six 
hours in the last forty-three years, or since I have been in 
business, and 1 have been putting in hard work on an aver- 
age of fifteen to eighteen hours a day every day in the year 
except Sundays. Always try to get to church on Sunday. 

The average farmer works fifteen hours a day during a. 
few months, and only about three hours a day to feed the 
stock during the remainder of the year. Many of them let 
the fences go down, and allow the briers to grow in the 
fence corners. Let me cite you a fact: My brother, three 
years older than T. and myself were at a reunion, the 47th 
anniversary o( the enlistment of our Company at Cicero, 



With the Beef Tkust 41 

Indiana, which is four miles from Strawtown — and let me 
say in passing that Strawtown is the place where the bine 
grass grew "belly deep to a horse, " as referred to by Mr. 
Lockridge. This territory is on the line of White River, 
where they talked of having large sums of money appro- 
priated in an attempt to make White River navigable — a 
river which, for three fourths of the year, does not have 
water enough to carry away the sewage, and which parallels 
steam and electric lines. The distance is one hundred and 
fifty miles from Strawtown to Vincennes. Strawtown is 
one of the towns that the railroads missed, and there is not 
twenty per cent, of the people living there today there were 
forty years ago. But getting back. We took a ride in a 
buggy and went out past the old home. I had not been 
there in thirty-five years. We came across a place covering 
about sixty to eighty acres, about a half mile from the farm 
where I was born. I asked my brother, who lived there. 
' ' Why, ' ' he said, ' ' that man married this farm. ' ' He was a 
fisherman. He had built a frame house of some four or 
five rooms about six or eight years before, which had never 
been painted — not even primed. He had cleared up a few 
acres and the other sixty had old wild blackberries growing 
on it, and underbrush, worse than it was in the bleakest part 
of Indiana sixty years ago. Every acre of this land would 
yield at least seventy-five to one hundred bushels of corn — 
land as fine as any land in the United States. It would sell 
for from $125.00 to $150.00 an acre. 

The next place to it was owned by James Hill, who is 
about seventy years old and was reared on an adjoining 
farm to my father's. He owns two hundred and sixty acres. 
His farm is in as high a state of cultivation as any place in 



42 Twenty Years in Hell 

Indiana. This shows the difference in the conditions near 
Strawtown. We drove by the old home which is now owned 
by one of the Newbys, the greatest family I ever knew, and 
who own one-fourth of the township. I asked my brother 
what became of the little old sour apple tree that I planted 
on the side of the hill sixty years ago. He said the tree was 
gone and the hill all leveled down. Live people had gotten 
hold of my father's farm, while a fisherman had married 
the brier patch and is still keeping it a brier patch and liv- 
ing on fish. 

Forty years ago I bought hogs weighing two hundred 
and forty to two hundred and fifty pounds, average, at six 
months old, as many as one hundred at a time, of Frank 
Newby, who is now about eighty years old, and was the best 
feeder in the township at that time. He never allowed a 
pig to squeal for feed. He fed them right from the start all 
that they would eat. 

The Newby family came from Virginia about 1814 and 
settled in Marion county, about ten miles north of this 
city. They moved up to Strawtown in the Spring of 1836. 
The head of the family was named John, and in my time, 
forty-three years ago, when I had a store at Strawtown, he 
was known as "Old John." He had a son whom we called 
"Young John," also three other sons — Squire, Bill and 
Frank. Each had a son John whom we called "Squire's 
John," "Bill's John" and "Frank's John." There were 
also four daughters who married and had families, with a 
"John" in each family. They all have Roosevelt families. 
This family owns practically one-fourth of the best town- 
ship in the State of Indiana. All were farmers with the ex- 
ception of "Squire's John," who became a doctor. 



With the Beef Trust 43 

I have not seen "Squire's John/' the doctor — who, I un- 
derstand, is president of a bank there and who has an excel- 
lent practice — with the exception of one time in 1896 when I 
was traveling on the hind-end of a train with J. B. Foraker, 
Senator from Ohio. When the train stopped at Sheridan, 
Indiana, which is in the next township to Strawtown, I in- 
troduced Mr. Foraker to the crowd. Newby got on the 
train there and introduced himself to me. 

In 1892 I went out from Indianapolis with McKinley, 
when he made his famous tin-plate speech at Elwood, Indi- 
ana. While he w T as out looking at the tin-plate w r orks, I had 
to speak in the opera house for an hour while the crowd was 
waiting for him to come back. This is a matter of record, 
at least in the minds of those who have survived. 

I went out with President Harrison into James Whit- 
comb Riley's county and made three speeches. I spoke 
after Mr. Harrison in the afternoon of the same day and 
then had to go on to Fortville in the northern part of the 
county, on the Big Four, to hold the crowd until the Gen- 
eral came in. It was the hardest day's work of my life. 
Mr. Harrison was billed to arrive at Fortville at nine o'clock 
and I started to speak at eight o 'clock, and he didn 't get in 
until eleven o'clock. I had four or five thousand people 
waiting for him, and I think I told them everything I knew 
— and then some. 

Two brothers by the names of Timothy and Thomas 
O'Mahoney originally owned the Cornelius farm at Straw- 
town, which I mentioned in my first letter, and where I re- 
ceived my first education in practical farming and raising 
thoroughbred live stock. They were offered a big price by , 
the live man who came from Wayne County. Timothy 



44 Twenty Yeaks iist Hell 

married after he came to this country, a first cousin to my 
father, Catherine Shiel, daughter of Mike Shiel, a Justice of 
the Peace generally known as General Shiel, at Shielville, 
Indiana, and who had the first general merchandise store 
there. 

The O'Mahoney brothers heard of the cheap lands in 
Illinois and went West to seek a new home. Timothy 
bought some three or four hundred acres, a mile or two west 
of Lake Forrest ; he also bought seventy acres on the Lake 
at $1.25 per acre — timber land which he bought mostly for 
fire wood. Thomas went some three miles west of Wauke- 
gon, and bought prairie land. It all looked alike to them, 
but would not produce twenty bushels of corn to the acre. 
It was grass land, and not the best of that kind of land. 
They were hunting for locations close to the Church — most 
of these families are strong in the Church and now several 
of them are in convents. They all sent their children to col- 
leges. My cousin 's oldest son Thomas was for a number of 
years Professor of Languages in Notre Dame University, In- 
diana, and has been a member of the Legislature in Colo- 
rado. 

Now, this farm land which they bought is not worth 
much more at the present time than it was years ago. It 
can be used only for dairy purposes; while the seventy 
acres of timber land, originally bought for fire wood, near 
Lake Forest, the O'Mahoney heirs sold for $70,000.00, and 
then at a sacrifice. Had they drifted into the prairies of 
central Illinois, Iowa, Kansas or Nebraska, and bought 
binds there, the land would be worth today $125.00 to 
$150.00 per acre; but the early O'Mahoneys could not see 
the value of the blue grass land that they owned near Straw- 
town. 



With the Beef Trust 45 

Back during the years 73 and '74 the grasshoppers were 
a godsend, in a way, to the people of southern Indiana, 
southern Illinois, Kentucky and also Ohio. The same year 
the grasshoppers cleaned out Kansas ; that is, ate all of the 
vegetation in Kansas. The farmers had to get rid of all 
their stock in some way, and I presume that I handled as 
many as eight or ten thousand head and sold as many as 
ten thousand to twenty thousand head to go into southern 
Indiana and Ohio. The crops of corn were very heavy that 
same year in southern Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. The 
stock was all of the highest grade, from big hogs weighing 
three hundred pounds to pigs weighing five pounds. It was 
a remarkable fact that there was no cholera that year. The 
farmers drove off everything they had on the farms and put 
them in the cars, billing them to me at Indianapolis, and to 
others who were engaged in the same commission business, 
and the farmers for one hundred and fifty miles around 
here would come in to get them for stockers. We classified 
them. Some would buy the little pigs, others would buy 
the big old brood sows, and in that way they bettered the 
stock and did away with the razor-backs that they had, es- 
pecially in southern Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. The same 
may be said of Kentucky. 

Kansas was settled after the War with the live men who 
had been in the army, and who did not buy anything but 
thoroughbred stock ; and this will explain why Kansas as a 
State is equal to or better than any other State in the Union 
in the production of live stock. 

Note what Mr. S. F. Lockridge, former State Senator, 
has to say in regard to Indiana Colleges and their lack of 
facilities, with the exception of Purdue, for the education 
of scientific farmers and stock raisers. Bloomington Col- 



46 Twenty Years in Hell 

lege, the Indiana University, educates lawyers, doctors and 
ministers and has no bearing whatever on farming or agri- 
culture. 

Asbury, or what is now DePauw University — note what 
Mr. Lockridge says on this college. He is a little preju- 
diced, as he graduated there some forty years ago. 

Wabash College, Montgomery county, is a similar char- 
acter of college. That county went clear ahead, notwith- 
standing. 

St. Joseph's College in Jasper county is a classical and 
theological institution and therefore does not aim to edu- 
cate for farming and stock raising. 

Notre Dame University is one of the very best, yet they 
have no agricultural department, as they ought to have. 

Earlham College, which is a Quaker institution, in Dud- 
ley Foulke ? s county, while a very good college, has not made 
much progress in the last thirty years. 

Purdue College is up-to-date and should be encouraged. 
To my astonishment, when I attended the Commencement 
last fall, the Board of Directors, half of them old-timers, 
"plowing with the old wooden mold-board/' had a meet- 
ing. They said that they were paying their President 
$5,000 a year. I asked them what kind of a man they could 
get for $5,000 a year, and they said that they had no more 
money to pay with. I said that the President of a college, 
where frwenty-two hundred students were educated in the 
most essential education that could possibly be given them, 
ought to be paid more than $5,000. But I found that all of 
the other instructors in this college received salaries in 
proportion. I said it was wonderful how they could get 
such results as they are getting without paying more for 



With the Beef Trust 47 

them. They said the State would not appropriate more for 
their support. 

To my mind, the Government could not do a better thing 
than to appropriate some support to such a college as Pur- 
due, and help to establish other similar universities. The 
fact is, every county ought to have one like it, to educate 
the farmer to know the kind of stock (just as Cornelius edu- 
cated me at Strawtown), to know how much meat you can ■ 
get out of a bullock, hog or sheep; what kind of seed to 
plant; what kind of fruits to grow. Teach the boy who 
spends his time fishing to give part of his time to taking care 
of the trees, grapevines, chickens, ducks and geese, and en- 
courage the farmers who send their sons to college to have 
them educated in practical and scientific farming, rather 
than attempt to make doctors and lawyers out of all of them, 

Purdue College is the only college that is really placing 
the farmer in the class where he belongs. There is an over- 
production of the other professions from the other colleges. 
Purdue has no support outside of the little that the State 
gives it. It is a fact that the lawyers and doctors of the 
other colleges are better lobbyists in the Legislature than 
are the farmers. 

The fact is, that it is a great ambition for the farmer 
with a hundred or hundred and sixty acres of land and who 
has made some money, to make a doctor, lawyer or minister 
out of his son, rushing him off to that kind of a college, 
where he is vaccinated in the profession, but in nine cases 
out of ten the vaccination does not ' c take, ' ' and he is a fail- 
ure ; while if he had been educated in farming and taught 
the motto " Early to bed and early to rise," he would have 
probably made a much better and more successful man, a 



48 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

credit to his father and to his community. There is not one 
doctor out of a hundred who really succeeds in his profes- 
sion; not one out of a hundred lawyers succeeds, and the 
same might be said of the ministers. 

Many of these sons of wealthy farmers, thrown in con- 
tact at the college with sons of the rich men from the 
cities, who are sent there to become doctors or lawyers, be- 
come extravagant and careless, depending upon their 
father's wealth to keep them. They may, perhaps, gamble 
in Chicago options until, in other words, the sons break the 
fathers. But the men whom I will mention in this brief, 
have got the original land that their fathers left them, and 
have hung on to it. None of them ever dealt in Chicago 
options. Pity the foolish man who goes up against ' ' three- 
card monte, ' ' or against another man V game, and thinks 
because there is a failure of crops in his immediate neigh- 
borhood, that the prices are going up, or, if he has a big 
crop, they are going down and sells or buys on what the 
market is going to be, in his judgment of the crops. 

Right here I want you to note that the Graham family is 
a notable exception to this — the father has made the sons, 
and the sons have not ruined the father. Their father was 
one of the very best friends I ever had, and I often talked 
to him about his four boys. They have succeeded in the 
line of their profession and are right up-to-date, all four of 
them. They were ' * vaccinated ' ' and the vaccination 
"took." 

Thomas Graham was a successful business man and he 
made thorough business men out of two of his sons and pro- 
fessional men of the other two, who are now at the head of 
the column. There is no man whom I knew better in busi- 



With the Beef Trust 49 

ness life than Thomas Graham ; one of the noblest works of 
God — 6 ' an honest man ; ' ' and he taught his four sons to live 
the same kind of life that he lived. 

It will not be expected that I spend much time on the 
men whom I am naming in this brief, but all of them are of 
the same high character. I mention Mr. Graham especially 
as a man who had two of his sons take up a profession and 
make a success of it, while there are hundreds, yes, thou- 
sands of high-class, successful business men who have put 
their sons into professions and those sons have not made a 
success of it, 

I have often heard Thomas Graham say "Early to bed 
and early to rise" is the secret of his success, and the boys 
all say that their father had them up at five o 'clock break- 
fast; and all of them, even the minister, now that their 
father is dead, continue to get up early, having formed the 
habit. He is one of the best ministers in Dudley Foulke's 
town. They do not know much farming, but they do know 
much about the business and profession to which they have 
applied themselves. 

Now I want to invite attention to the progress that has 
been made, and can still be made, with the proper support 
and appropriations in the way of ditching, drainage and 
reclaiming of otherwise worthless lands in Indiana, Illinois 
and Ohio. Note particularly what Judge Timothy E. 
Howard has said about the Kankakee lands. He is one of 
the ablest men Indiana has produced. He is now about 
seventy years old. He was a good soldier during the War, 
and since the War has been a Professor at Notre Dame Uni- 
veristy, has twice held a seat on the bench of the Supreme 



[4] 



50 Twenty Years in Hell 

Court of Indiana and has been a member of both the House 
and Senate. 

Another man about whom I wish to make special men- 
tion is Franklin Landers. He was one of the original 
farmers owning several thousand acres of land in Morgan 
county, the next county to this. In 74 he was one of the 
very best farmers Indiana had produced on White River, 
some fifteen miles below Indianapolis; but he got into 
politics, and into the National House of Representatives (he 
having run for Congress against General John Coburn, one 
of the ablest congressmen this district ever had, and beat 
him) . This ruined Landers, and diverted him somewhat from 
farming; yet when he died, a few years ago, he left his 
heirs one thousand acres of the best river bottom land, 
which he had protected with a levee of about two miles. If 
this land had not been so protected, it would be worthless 
for farming, as it would have been all cut up by the river 
breaking through it. 

The channel of White River in Indianapolis has changed 
in the forty years that I have been here. Unless protected 
by levees, rivers change their course often. Mr. Landers 
was one of those who made the fight in the Legislature, at 
the time Judge Howard speaks about, for an appropriation 
to drain the Kankakee. He owned at that time 5,000 acres 
of Kankakee land. 

Note what Mr. Smith says about reclaiming land in 
Greene county. Note, also, Morgan and Putnam coun- 
ties, the latter of which is Senator Beveridge's county. 
There is one ditch in Putnam and adjoining counties which 
cost $80,000, built in the last few years, which reclaimed and 
improved fifty thousand acres, while fifteen thousand acres 



With the Beef Trust 51 

were assessed for the benefits. A number of men have been 
benefited by these ditches, who w T ill not allow their names to 
be used, as they say that it would put land which they had 
bought for $2.00 or $10.00 per acre, up to $100 and $150 
per acre, and they do not want their names mentioned, as 
their tax assessment would be raised accordingly. 

Levees, ditching, cutting dow r n elm and beech trees that 
shade the blue grass, are some of the things that would be of 
the greatest benefit. Not only is this true in Indiana and 
Ohio, but the same could be said of many sections all over 
the country. 

Note particularly the work of Mr. Brevort, of Vincennes. 
The Wabash River overflowed all below Vincennes. Mr. 
Brevort was one of the very best farmers in Indiana. He 
commenced right outside the corporation of Vincennes, built 
a levee of ten miles some years ago, and reclaimed something 
like ten thousand acres, which is now the most fertile land 
in Indiana. When the Wabash is high, it backs in, but that 
improves the land. He built the levee high enough so that 
the river w T ill not overflow at any place. He informs me 
that last year he had four hundred acres of alfalfa, from 
which he gathered four crops ; and to my mind, if the Gov- 
ernment would not undertake to build up navigation for 
streams and run steamboats on rivers where there is prob- 
ably not water enough to carry away the sewage, and spend 
the same amount of money for the building of levees to hold 
the river in its banks, it would be farther reaching in the 
way of general betterment. 

Petitions are being circulated at points along the Wa- 
bash River, which will be presented to Congress, asking for 
an appropriation to be used in making the Wabash a navi- 



52 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

gable stream from its source to its mouth. The Government 
has expended hundreds of thousands of dollars in a useless 
effort to improve the Wabash, and millions may be appro- 
priated by Congress and spent in the same manner again, 
and in a few years we will have the same results. The Gov- 
ernment can afford to expend money on the Chicago canal, 
the Big Sandy and Kentucky Rivers, the Green River, Cum- 
berland and Tennessee and Ohio, as they are not paralleled 
by railroads as is the Wabash, and they lead into the coal 
and iron fields. 

If Indiana Congressmen and Senators would aid in get- 
ting appropriations from the Government to help drain the 
Kankakee and some other swamps in Indiana, then help* 
Illinois to get its canal, they would look better to me. 

Note the things said of Watson's district, which is one 
of the very best districts in Indiana, and his county is the 
best county in the State for hogs, and was for cattle. Note, 
also, what Mr. Mull says about that county. 

Read what Mr. Smith says about Franklin county. It 
is a hilly county and the only poor county in Watson's dis- 
trict ; but it would not be poor if they followed what Mr. 
Smith is doing down there. To my mind it is one of the 
very best counties, and less than forty miles from Cin- 
cinnati. 

One great trouble with Congressmen and Senators is : 
"You li i -1 1 > me and I will help you." The same may be sn id 
of the State Legislature. One wants a dog law passed, an- 
other a ditch law, and another a school law, and they under- 
take to lobby through the things which are of interest only 
to their immediate locality. 

Sec what Mr. Morgan has to say. He and his two 



With the Beef Trust 53 

brothers own the ten to fifteen thousand acres of land their 
father left and have bought more. I bought for Timothy 
Eastman at one time a train load of live stock from his 
father. It was the largest check I ever issued, $55,500.00, 
to a farmer at one turn. 

I would call attention to what Mr. Lee Sinclair has to 
say. He is the greatest benefactor in the way of promoting 
and building the most magnificent health resort in the 
world. By cutting down a large part of the timber on his 
500 acres in Orange county, he has demonstrated that 
blue grass can be grown all over this State. Twenty 
or thirty years ago I was in Orange county and saw as 
many as forty or fifty ox-teams coming in out of the hills 
to a Fourth of July celebration. He has demonstrated that 
blue grass will grow on those hills, if the underbrush is 
cut, I have visited Sinclair at West Baden twice a year for 
the last twenty years. I always find him up at four o'clock 
in the morning; he always goes to bed at nine. His motto, 
too. is ''Early to bed and early to rise. ,, His hotel covers 
several acres, contains 780 rooms, all connected with baths, 
and thoroughly fireproof, as it is built of brick, steel and 
concrete. 

I want to speak of "Blue Jeans" Williams, or Governor 
Williams, who in 76 beat Benjamin Harrison for Governor. 
He was one of the very best farmers and one of the very 
best men Indiana has ever produced, breeding good stock. 
AYhile Governor he built one of the very best State Houses 
in the country on an appropriation of $2, 000.00(\ and had 
$200,000 left after he completed it. He looked after it him- 
self. He also had an excellent Board that was seeing 
after it. 



54 Twenty Years in Hell 

Governor Williams, or "Blue jeans" Williams, as he was 
commonly called, was one of the best Governors Indiana 
ever had. He was a renowned breeder of live stock in his 
time in and about Vincennes, Knox county, where, as I 
have already said, Mr. Brevort built ten miles of levee, be- 
ginning close to the city of Vincennes, and reclaimed some- 
thing like six to ten thousand acres of land. 

CONDITIONS IN ILLINOIS. 

I have to take in Illinois in this brief, as central Illinois 
has been a great producer of live stock for years, and has 
had in a way a better grade of stock than either Indiana or 
Ohio. I speak especially of Speaker Cannon's district, and 
in fact, include all of the districts back to the Mississippi 
River in the central part of the State. 

The best feeder I ever knew was Mr. Pinnell, and his live 
stock have taken premiums practically at all fancy live stock 
shows, his cattle selling at the highest prices at all of the 
stock sales. It is about forty years since I bought the first 
fourteen hundred head of hogs of him — it was in June that 
I took them — at the time that live-stock men first com- 
menced handling summer hogs. Prior to that time there 
had been very few or no hogs handled during the summer. 

To my utter astonishment, when he took me out to his 
place to dinner, he had ice cream, a thing practically un- 
known to a farmer at that time. He had dinner served al- 
most equal to that you would get today in one of the good 
hotels in the city of New York. He always lived up to date 
and a little ahead of time. 

I stood at the side of Richard Webber at the Pittsburg 
stock show, about eight years ago, and also in Chicago, and 



With the Beef Trust 55 

had Mr. Webber buy the Pinnell cattle at eight and nine 
cents a pound, while other cattle were "selling at five and 
six cents. Webber wanted to know if that was the best load 
— he always said he wanted the best load, for he always 
bought the best cattle. 

I could mention a hundred of these men in Indiana; 
twenty-five or thirty in Ohio and a hundred in Illinois — 
notably the Braggs in Douglas county; Kenyon, of Logan 
county; Harris, of Champaign county; Groves and Moss. 
of Vermillion county; Carney and Shepard, of Moultrie 
county; Bealls, of Coles county; Newlins, of Crawford 
county, and Fugate, of Clark county. The fact is there 
was not a man living in Illinois from the Mississippi River 
to the Indiana line, back to '68 and '69, who fed a hundred 
hogs or forty good cattle that I did not know, ot was in 
touch with at the time. I was always a judge on sweep- 
stakes for bulls at the State fairs in Illinois, Indiana and 
Ohio, and at nearly all the best county fairs in each of those 
States. 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

I will have to refer again to West Virginia, for I can see 
there today a very great improvement. Possibly there is 
no State in the Union that has advanced more in the last 
twenty or thirty years, in the development of the blue 
grass on the hills, and the sheep and cattle, and has done 
more toward the breeding up from the "knot-head" and 
" pennyroyal" cattle and the Merino sheep to the very 
highest grade of each. 

Also I want to speak again of the peasants of New Jer- 
sey. Twenty to thirty-five years ago I was buying for John 
Taylor, of Trenton, New Jersey, an excellent gentleman, 



56 Twenty Yeaks in Hell, 

politician and many times a Senator. I was shipping to 
him from two thousand to four thousand ewes per month 
during the Summer and Fall months. These were known 
as Jersey ewes from southern Indiana and southern Illinois, 
and some from Kentucky. They would weigh from 
ninety to one hundred and twenty pounds, being large in 
size but poor in wool. They brought, however, a large 
lamb. The peasants at that time in New Jersey would buy 
these ewes, one farmer buying five ewes, another ten, and 
another perhaps as many as a hundred. They bought the 
ewes to bring the big lambs, and the lamb which would come 
in January, the farmer sold in February or March to 
butchers in New York and Philadelphia at a price high 
enough to pay for the ewe. Then they would fatten the 
ewe, cut the wool off and sell her, and would then buy an- 
other ewe the next year. 

John Taylor was one of the earliest pork packers in 
Trenton. He also owned a stock yards. He was one of the 
best men I ever knew, but he played politics a little on the 
side, as I have done. 

Now I want to speak briefly of a few of the pioneer 
butchers and packers whom I have done business with in the 
last forty years, and who have done more to build up and 
protect the manufacturer of high-grade farm products than 
any other men. These pioneers have done much towards en- 
couraging the farmers of the central and western States, for 
they have drawn most of their supplies from these raisers of 
high grade live stock. 

Mr. John P. Squire was the greatest business man this 
country produced. "Early to bed and early to rise" was 
his motto. He would be at his packing house in the morn- 



With the Beef Trust 57 

ing at half past five or six o'clock — before any of his men. 
Often, when I had made a trip to Boston, especially to con- 
fer with John P. Squire, he would invite me to go to break- 
fast with him. I generally stopped at the Parker House 
and Young Hotel while in Boston, and many times the stu- 
dents of Harvard, who would be banqueting at the hotel, 
would make so much noise that I would be kept awake until 
the early hours of the morning, and then would oversleep 
myself, so that I would not be out to meet old John P. 
Squire and go to five o'clock breakfast with him. 

This pioneer, now passed away, did for years what Con- 
gress and the President have done recently. He fought 
adulteration and misrepresentation through the State Legis- 
latures and at Washington. He was not satisfied to begin 
work at the factory, but began it with the farmers, in the 
purchase of their best live stock; always paying the top 
prices of the market until all of the best farmers in Indiana, 
Illinois and Ohio knew the "Squire kind." And the selec- 
tion came to be made by sorting the stock at the farm and 
having it shipped direct to East Cambridge without passing 
through the stock yards. 

Bishop Lawrence, of Massachusetts, recently told a story, 
illustrating how well known the name of Squire was among 
the farmers of the Middle West. In delivering an address 
in a small town in Iowa he stated to his audience that he 
came from Cambridge, Mass., remarking: "I suppose you 
have all heard of Cambridge?" "Certainly," was the 
ready response; "then you know of the fame of Harvard 
College?" There was a silence, and the Bishop, wonder- 
ingly inquired: "Never heard of Harvard College? , Then 
whom do you know there?" and as readily came the re- 



58 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

sponse: "John P. Squire and Company, we ship 'em 
hogs. ' ' 

The name of Squire is known wherever the pork prod- 
ucts of New England are found. John P. Squire is credited 
as the pioneer of the pork industry, as it is known today in 
Faneuil Hall Market, Boston. Those who early served in 
the business under him are the ones who stand, incidentally, 
at present as the veteran Dork men at the stalls. 

Mr. John P. Squire, son of Peter and Esther Squire, was 
born on a farm in Weathersfield, Windsor county, Ver- 
mont, May 8, 1819. His early training and physical de- 
velopment were obtained in the public school and on the 
farm. On the 1st day of May, 1835, he entered the employ- 
ment of Mr. Orvis, the village store-keeper, at West Wind- 
sor, and remained with him two years. In the fall of 1837 
he attended the Academy at Unity, New Hampshire, of 
which Reverend A. A. Miner was then Principal, and taught 
school at Cavendish during a part of that and the following 
winter. On the 19th of March, 1838, he went to Boston, 
entered the employ of Nathan Robbins in Faneuil Hall 
Market, and continued with him until May 1, 1842, when 
he formed a co-partnership with Francis Russell, who car- 
ried on the provision business at 25 Faneuil Hall Market, 
under the style of Russell and Squire, until the year 1847, 
when the co-partnership was dissolved. Mr. Squire then 
continued the business alone, at the same place, until 1855, 
when he formed a new co-partnership with Hiland Lock- 
wood and Edward D. Kimball, under the name of John P. 
Squire & Co. The new firm name and business continued 
until the year 1892, when a corporation was formed under 
the laws of Massachusetts, with the name of The John P. 




JOHN P. SQUIRE. 



With the Beef Trust 59 

Squire & Company Corporation. The changes in the part- 
ners who were associated with Mr. Squire are as follows: 
the retirement of Edward D. Kimball in 1866 ; the admis- 
sion of W. W. Kimball in the same year, and his retirement 
in 1873; the admission of Mr. Squire's sons, George W. 
and Frank 0. Squire in 1873; the death of Hiland Lock- 
wood in 1874 ; the retirement of George W. Squire in 1876 ; 
the admission of Fred F. Squire, Mr. Squire 's youngest son, 
January 1, 1884. 

In 1855 Mr. Squire bought a small tract of land in East 
Cambridge, and built a slaughter house upon it. Since that 
time the business has grown to such an extent that the 
corporation has today one of the largest and best equipped 
packing-houses in the country, and the corporation stands 
third in the list of pork-packers in the United States. 

In 1848 Mr. Squire moved to West Cambridge, now 
called Arlington, where he continued to reside until his 
death, January 7, 1893. When he first went to Boston he 
joined the Mercantile Library Association, and spent a 
great deal of his leisure time in reading, of which he was 
very fond. The position which he held in commercial 
circles was due to his untiring industry, undaunted courage, 
and marked ability. 

In 1843 he married Miss Kate Green Orvis, daughter of 
his old employer; eleven children were born of this mar- 
riage, viz. : Charles, Nellie, George W., Jennie C. (Mrs. 
L. Fred Cooke), Frank 0., Mary E. (Mrs. J. P. Wyman), 
John Adams, Kate I. (Mrs. William A. Muller), Nannie K. 
(Mrs. Walter L. Hill), Fred F., Bessie E. (Mrs. H. E. 
Holmes. Of these eight are now living, Charles having 
died in infancy, Nellie in 1890 and Mrs. Cooke, September 
21, 1899. 



60 Twenty Years in Hell 

The marketmen of Boston have always maintained their 
good reputation in the line of American pork. The indus- 
try was represented in Faneuil Hall Market very soon after 
it was established, although the people raised their own 
hogs, the most wealthy not failing to keep one or more. 
Even Peter Faneuil at his estate on Tremont Street had his 
stock of porkers. At the opening of the market, in 1826, 
twenty-three of the stalls were set apart for the sale of pork, 
being then rated as next in importance to the beef trade. 

The progress made in the business, is, to a large degree, 
within the memory of present stall-keepers. When they first 
put out their signs, this stock was largely obtained from 
farmers in New England. Two or three hogs was a large 
stock to dispose of in a day. 

John P. Squire's first account book shows that he began 
business on April 30, 1842, by buying two pigs, weight 320 
pounds, at six cents; amount $19.20. But ere long the 
greater part of the pigs were from the West. Yet, as 
there were no facilities for packing pork in the warm sea- 
son, the burden of the business was done in the cold weather. 
Hogs were slaughtered in the West and shipped to Boston 
frozen ; then business was lively, for these frozen hogs must 
be freed from frost before the pork could be packed suc- 
cessfully. But the progressive mind of John P. Squire soon 
wearied of this method of conducting business, and he tried 
the experiment of slaughtering a hog in warm weather, and 
cooling the flesh in a rude box, in which it was packed be- 
tween layers of ice. The supply of fresh pork every day 
soon created a demand, and there was no longer a slack 
season in the pork business. 

The improved facilities for cold storage contributed ma- 



With the Beef Tkust 61 

terially to this progress, but, unlike beef, the pork business 
has not made a demand for the refrigerator cars, the stock 
being brought to the Eastern market almost entirely alive. 
The hogs are bought by agents from the farmers in the 
great corn belt of the West, and herded at several shipping 
centers, from which they are brought to the great slaughter- 
ing houses. 

Involving as this does the great pork-packing feature of 
the business there is included the preparation of food for 
every part, of the civilized globe. 

The rise of the few great pork industries has been the 
means of changing the business of the stalls, confining them 
more particularly to the local trade, the supply coming 
from these great centers, save as now and then a farmer 
brings to market a choice specimen, which serves to remind 
the veteran stall-keepers of the days when they began busi- 
ness and looked to the country farmers for a fancy York- 
shire or Suffolk. Each department of the market has its 
peculiar feature and offers its choice morsel to gratify the 
epicure. In the pork trade we find the roaster, although 
perhaps more commonly handled by the poultry men. 
Charles Lamb claims the Chinese first introduced the idea 
of roast pig. Be that as it may, the Boston palate was easily 
trained to appreciate the delicate suckling, ' 'under a moon- 
old, guiltless as yet of the stye, with none of the hereditary 
failings of the first parent yet manifest, his voice as yet not 
broken, but sometimes between a childish treble and a 
grumble, the mildest forerunner of a grunt. ' ' 

Mr. Timothy Eastman, of New York, located at the foot 
of West 60th Street, was possibly in a way the equal of John 
P. Squire. He exported the first dressed beef, and at one 



62 Twenty Yeaks iist Hell 

time owned three or four hundred butcher shops in Ireland, 
England and Scotland. I remember being with Eastman 
one day, when he had first commenced utilizing the blood 
from the cattle slaughtered, and he said that he had made 
$30,000 saving the blood that heretofore had been running 
into the Hudson River. He used it to make fertilizer with. 
I remember going home with him at another time. He had 
a bucket with him. He said, "I am fooling the old lady. 
She is eating oleomargarine and I am calling it Connecticut 
butter. ' ' In other words, butter comes out of the loin of an 
old cow; sometimes from cows in a diseased condition, 
goes through the process of milking and churning before it 
reaches the consumer, while the oleomargarine is manufac- 
tured out of the kidney tallow of a very high grade steer. 

Eastman had an especial room where he manufactured 
the oleomargarine in pots holding from 20 to 30 pounds. 
It was entirely enclosed so as to keep it sweet and clean — 
sanitary. You had to go through two or three doors before 
you got into the enclosed room. He put a big rubber coat 
on me when I went in there. He would put his finger in 
the tallow that was being made into the oleomargarine and 
would taste it, but I couldn't do it. 

Thirty-five years ago I bought for as many as fifteen 
packing houses located in county seats on White River from 
Strawtown to Vincennes, small houses of a similar char- 
acter to those which have been established and supported 
by the Government in Denmark. At that time they made 
kettle-rendered lard out of the leaf lard and the gut lard 
was made into grease. There was no refining of lard then. 
No other high grade lard but the kidney lard, or what is 
known as the leaf lard. Refining of lard has been inaugu- 



With the Beef Trust 63 

rated within the last thirty-five years, and they have now 
got it to such a point that they can refine dead hogs into 
lard sometimes after having been dead for two days' time. 
In Denmark the Government protects the people against the 
fertilizers and trusts, and the adulteration and refining of 
the inferior products. 

At that time I was buying hogs for Evans & Loftin, at 
Noblesville, which is in the county where Strawtown is lo- 
cated, some twenty miles north of here. Evans was then a 
member of Congress. J. C. Ferguson at Indianapolis; 
Coffin, Wheat, Fletcher & Company, at Indianapolis; 
Holmes, Petit and Bradshaw f at Indianapolis ; Landis and 
Givens at Indianapolis and Kingan & Company at In- 
dianapolis. All of the smaller packing houses and a 
number of large butchers here have now been absorbed, 
and there is practically no house but Kingan & Com- 
pany in Indianapolis. Most of them were " broke." 
They had been running along in the old-time way 
of doing business. Kingan & Company was an Irish syn- 
dicate, organized at Belfast, moving ahead all the time. 
Kingans are now running three houses here, all under their 
original names and yet they all belong to Kingan. 

South of here on the river I bought for Parks, Hender- 
son & Company, to whom I shipped as many as five hun- 
dred hogs at a time on some days. I bought for another 
house at Gosport ten miles south of there ; one at Spencer, 
fifty miles south of here, and another at Vincennes. 

We will have to go back to the old way of doing business 
so that when we go to the shop after lard, we get pure lard, 
and not an adulteration or a refined grease. If we go after 
a soup bone, we get a bone out of a high grade steer, one 



64 Twenty Years in Hell 

that soup can be made out of which will be healthful and 
nourishing, and not out of an old canner; but to bring 
this about, the knot-heads have got to go ; the country is full 
of them, and there is not one man in a thousand who can 
tell the difference between a yearling high-bred calf and a 
four-year-old knot-head of the same color; or how much 
flesh each will take on in the feeding, or can tell the differ- 
ence there is in the quality of the meat that comes out of 
the two. 

Their customers always knew what they were getting 
from John P. Squire & Company and Timothy Eastman, 
but it is impossible to tell nowadays when you are getting 
the high grade stuff, when you are buying from the houses 
which are killing this low-grade and knot-head cattle and 
live stock and putting all kinds of stuff into the cans. Any- 
one ought to be able to tell the difference between the soup 
made from the bone of one of these old Jerseys or canners, 
and that made from a high grade steer. People had better 
buy a bone out of a good dog, or out of a horse, or out of a 
mule. It would be cheaper, and, from a standpoint of good, 
healthy food, would probably be better. 

When fertilizer men get to operating packing houses, 
and find that they can put these old canners and Jerseys 
into the cans and sell them for high grade products to the 
people, who can not tell the difference, there ought to be 
some way to protect the innocent. 

Some fifteen or eighteen years ago I was short an as- 
sistant at the stock yards. I needed an experienced man to 
inspect and to buy the high-grade stock. I employed a man 
by the name of Barney Trollman, of Pittsburg, to come here 
on Thursdays and Fridays, as those were the days that we 



With the Beef Tktjst 65 

had the heavy receipts of export cattle at the yards at that 
time. It run along for some time. I knew that he had a 
big trade in Philadelphia of his own, and at Pittsburg. 
They had the market there generally on Mondays and Tues- 
days. We bought the high grade export cattle for Timothy 
Eastman of New York, Joe Stearns, of New York, M. Gold- 
smith of New York, Meyer & Houseman of Baltimore, E. 
A. Blackshere & Co. of Baltimore, and Layman Bros, of 
Baltimore. The fact is I had a very heavy export trade. 
To my astonishment I found that Trollman was buying 
Jerseys and low grade cows in Jersey City and shipping 
them back to Chicago to Nelson Morris to be canned. I 
called him in and told him that that couldn't go on, as I 
could not be a party to the buying of canners and Jerseys, 
or as low at grade of stock as that, and I had to let him go. 

Mr. Arthur Jordan, also, had at one time his head- 
quarters at Indianapolis. Some thirty years ago he was 
selling chickens off of the hind end of a wagon in the market 
here. He went into the poultry business, and a few years 
ago he sold out to Nelson Morris & Co. It was reported 
that he got $750,000 for the stations he had established in 
Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and some parts of Ohio. Jor- 
dan used to sell poultry to Richard Webber by the car load. 
He opened a house in Boston, and in fact sold all over the 
East. Nelson Morris wanted to operate these stations in 
connection with his packing house for canned chicken. I 
suppose you, as well as others, are well aware what canned 
chicken is. The Jerseys and canners shipped from Jersey 
City to Chicago by Barney Trollman had in each and every 
one of them fifty to eighty pounds of canned chicken. 

You may assume that I am not stating facts ; but I can 

[5] 



66 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

tell high grade cattle, hogs or sheep, on the farm, the same 
as in the refrigerator and on the hook, and also whether the 
product came out of a cow, heifer or steer; and I can tell 
it just as well on the table after it is cooked, and before I 
put my knife into it, and certainly any one ought to be able 
to tell it after he tastes it. I know the difference between 
the product of the high grade steer and of the Jersey 
and canner just as well as the experienced dry goods mer- 
chant does between calico and silk. I have been thoroughly 
educated in it, and I have spent at least two months a year 
between Portland, Maine, and Richmond, Virginia, counsel- 
ling with my customers and nearly freezing in their refrig- 
erators while inspecting their products, showing how they 
could improve their methods. I would find out how the 
Squires were doing, and would try to educate the others up 
to their methods, for the Squires were always ahead of all 
of them in their progressiveness. 

Very few of the farmers or feeders know that a pack- 
ing house situated in New England, or New York, or any 
place in the East buys meat on the hooks. What should 
be done is to educate the farmers to raise stock that will 
make pounds of meat when dressed. There is where their 
profit is. There is not one man in forty or perhaps a hun- 
dred who can tell whether a bullock will dress fifty pounds 
to the hundred or sixty-five pounds to the hundred. Not 
one in a hundred can tell whether a hog will dress seventy 
pounds or eighty-five pounds to the hundred. You under- 
stand you can pay $6.00 a hundred for one man's hogs, and 
$5.50 for another man's; the one lot of hogs will dress 
eighty-five per cent., while the other lot will dress only sixty- 
five per cent., and you readily see, that while you pay a 



With the Beef Tkust 67 

higher price for the better quality, the net price of the hogs 
is considerably cheaper; and it is this net price that the 
packer takes into consideration when he names the price to 
one farmer, and another price to another in the same lo- 
cality. One is a high-grade feeder, while the other is of 
low grade. I wish yon to particularly note the facsimile 
dressing sheets, such as I have received from John P. Squire 
& Co., on hogs, which I bought for them from certain men in 
certain localities: 



68 



Twenty Years in Hell 



Lot 56 



JOHN P. SQUIRE & COMPANY 

. . .Bought at Mt. Sterling, O From E. O'Day. 



Purchase date Dec. 2, 1902 

Arrival date Dec. 7, 1902 

Killing date Dec. 7, 1902 

Weighing date Dec. 7, 1902 

No. of cars 1 DD 

No. of hogs Shipped 116 

No. died in transit 

No. died in yards 

No. condemned 

No. short 0. No. over 

Condition on arrival Good 

Billing Weight 2,500 lbs. 



No 






u. 



, killed 

Purchase cost at 6.25. . .$1,588.62 

Brokerage 

Exchange 

Food 

Bedding or sand 

Tel. etc 

Freight at 24 

Feed at 

Bedding or sand at 

Transfer charges at 



1.60 



60.00 

6.80 
2.20 



Less value hogs 
removed en route 
No 



20713 $1,659.22 



(Cutting Weight) 
WEIGHT AND 



(Total Cost) 
SHRINKAGES. 



Purchase Weight (226) .. .25,418 lbs. 

Arrival Weight (total) 23,975 lbs. 

Transit Shrink (dead out). 1,443 lbs. 
Per cent, of purchased wgt . .0567 p.c. 

Purchased weight 25,418 lbs. 

Arrival wgt. (live) 23,975 lbs. 

Transit Shrink (dead in).. 1,443 lbs. 
Per cent, of purchased wgt . .0567 p.c. 

Purchase Weight 25,418 lbs. 

Killing weight 21,244 lbs. 

2% per cent, killing weight 513 lbs. 

Cutting weight 20,713 lbs. 

Cutting Shrink 4,705 lbs. 

Per cent, of purchase wgt. . 16.07 p.c. 
Remarks. 



Net cost dressed per lb. 



.0801 



With the Beef Trust 



69 



JOHN P. SQUIRE & COMPANY 

Lot 8 Bought at Urbana, Ohio From Thomas & Green . 



Purchase date Dec. 2, 1902 

Arrival date Dec. 7, 1902 

Killing date Dec. 7, 1902 

Weighing date Dec. 7, 1902 

No. of cars 1 DD 

No. of hogs shipped 117 

No. died in transit 

No. died in yards 

No. condemned 

No. short 0. No. over 

Condition on arrival Poor 

Billing Weight 26,570 lbs. 

No. killed 117 

Purchase cost at 6.25 $1,669.43 

u Brokerage 

g Exchange 1.70 

> Food 

~ Bedding or sand 

Tel. etc 



Ec/5 Freight at 24 

2 j Feed at 

c*& Bedding or sand at . 
Transfer charges at. 



65.10 



.90 



Less value hogs 
removed en route 
No 



20,143 $1,742.13 



(Cutting weight) (Total cost) 

WEIGHT AND SHRINKAGES. 
Purchase Weight (235) .. .26,711 lbs. 

Arrival Weight (total 23,800 lbs. 

Transit Shrink (dead out) . 2,911 lbs. 
Per cent, of purchased wgt . 10.89 p.c. 

Purchased Weight 26,711 lbs. 

Arrival wgt. (live) 23,800 lbs. 

Transit Shrink (dead in) . . 2,911 lbs. 
Per cent, of purchased wgt . 10.89 p.c. 

Purchase weight 26,711 lbs. 

Killing Weight 20,659 lbs. 

2y 2 per cent, killing weight 516 lbs. 

Cutting weight 20,143 lbs. 

Cutting Shrink 6,568 lbs. 

Per cent, of purchase wgt. 24.58 p.c. 
Remarks. 



Net cost dressed per lb 0S64 



70 Twenty Years in Hell 

Note, the hogs shipped from O'Day were a high class 
quality of stock, while the other load shipped on the same 
day was of poor quality. The number of hogs was practi- 
cally the same in both loads, a double deck. The time made 
was the same to the killing. The purchase cost of these two 
loads was the same and the freight the same, yet the O'Day 
hogs only shrank in transit five per cent, against ten per 
cent, for the other load, and the 'Day hogs cut sixteen per 
cent, against twenty-four and a half per cent, for the other 
load. The net cost, you see, for the O'Day hogs was $8.01 
per hundred against $8.64 for the other load, or a differ- 
ence of sixty-three cents per hundred. Now you can 
readily see that when the packing house would buy hogs 
from O'Day the next time, they could afford to pay a better 
price at the farm to him, and a lesser price to the other 
man, as they would know absolutely what to expect from 
each. 

Now, just one point that I want to call attention to that 
the farmers and purchasers of live stock have to contend 
with in the shipping of the hogs from the farms to the pack- 
ing house, and which, if it could be remedied, would greatly 
benefit the farmer, the purchasing agent and the packer, 
and that is, the swapping of the hogs in the stock yards. 
Let me cite a fact: Five years ago, when I was shipping 
from the farm to the packing house, I bought one hundred 
hogs from J. P. Beall, Mattoon, Illinois, which made one 
double-deck car-load. These hogs were all fed by one man, 
Air. Dole, one of the very best feeders in Coles county. 
They were higli grade hogs and of uniform weight. I had 
been having nil kinds of trouble on account of the swapping 
of hogs in \\\(> slock yards in Endianapolis. 1 had taken it 



With the Beef Tkust 71 

up with Mr. H. S. Storrs, General Superintendent of the 
Lake Shore Railroad, to see if it could not be stopped. 
Storrs turned my correspondence over to Grammer, an- 
other official, and Grammer in turn, turned it over to 
Dutcher, General Stock Agent of the New York Central 
road. Mr. Dutcher knew me and I knew him, but we had 
not seen each other in ten years. 

My hogs passed through here. I put a tracer after them 
myself, and then went on personally. I got out to the yards 
in Buffalo very early in the morning, so as not to meet any 
of the men who knew me, as I was very well known there. I 
located the pen where my hogs were unloaded, and to my 
astonishment I found in my load of fine, uniform, three 
hundred pound average hogs, twenty-two pigs, weighing 
something like one hundred and twenty-five pounds each. 
The number of the hogs were the same, tallying with the 
number shipped, tallying with the number unloaded off the 
cars at Buffalo; but twenty-two of my fine hogs had been 
taken out and these twenty-two pigs had been put in their 
place. I said nothing about this at Buffalo. I went on 
checking them out to Boston. The only place that they 
were unloaded en route was at Buffalo. I saw the hogs as 
they came off the cars in Boston, had them checked off by 
the Squire people, and knew absolutely that I was right. 
Then I went down to New York. I knew about the time 
that Mr. Dutcher got to his New York office. He had been 
the whole thing for sixty years in connection with the live 
stock business of the New York Central. The office clerk 
said that Mr. Dutcher had just stepped out, but would be 
back in a few minutes. When he came in, he let on as 
though he didn't know me. Then he said : "Hello, Rhody, 



72 Twenty Years in Hell 

are you the one who is sending all of these complaints? I 
ought to kick you out of the office, but I suppose that you 
are here for business." I said, "Yes. I have got several 
thousand dollars in claims against your railroad for slow 
time, swapping of hogs in Buffalo and deaths due to care- 
lessness, which I am here to collect — and I am here for busi- 
ness. " I then related the case of the twenty-two pigs, 
which had just happened. "Why," he said, "don't you 
know that there is not an honest stock yards in the coun- 
try. I had new keys made a number of times in the last 
fifty or sixty years for the New York Central stock yards' 
pens and within three days' time practically every commis- 
sion man in the yards would have duplicate keys." He 
said he had had keys made time and again for the Buffalo, 
Albany and New York yards, which belonged to the New 
York Central, and that they would get duplicate keys there. 
He said, ' ' How are we going to stop it ? " I said I would 
stop it. I asked him if the farmer was responsible for the 
swapping of the hogs in the yards, which he ships East — is 
he not to be protected? He knows his hogs, he has raised 
them himself, and yet, when they arrive at their destination 
it is reported back to him that in the fine bunch of hogs 
that he had shipped, every one of which he well knew 
— hogs which run as uniform as eggs — they had found 
twenty-two or twenty-five pigs, as the case might be. What 
recourse has the farmer ? Who is he to suspect ? Is he to 
think the house he is shipping to, the John P. Squire and 
Company, or some other similar company, is dishonest, and 
be forced to ship his hogs to a local market, or a local stock 
yards, where the same thing would happen again ? Or am 
I responsible whQn I buy the farmer's hogs outright from 



With the Beef Trust 73 

him at his farm, know absolutely what I am getting from 
him, and then have the house that I am buying for report 
back to me these pigs, and the heavy shrinkage from the 
original weights? The house would soon lose confidence in 
my representation. I asked him why not have stock yards 
where no commission men could have access? I said to 
Mr. Dutcher in conclusion, I am here for the purpose of 
finding out if there is not some way that these frauds per- 
petrated in your stock yards can be stopped, and I am here 
to collect the money for the damages sustained. 

Then I w^ent home and I put my claims in against the 
railroad company, and they paid every one of the claims, 
and I haven't seen Mr. Dutcher since. He looked to be 
about sixty years old, although he was about eighty at the 
time. 

Mr. S. Henry Skelton in attempting to establish a pack- 
ing house in New England, in opposition to the Beef Trust, 
is honest in his purpose of supplying to the New England 
trade the high grade, unadulterated products w T hich he had 
furnished them for so many years before the North Com- 
pany, with whom he had been associated, was absorbed by 
the Trust. He realizes the great fraud that is being per- 
petrated upon the people by the sale of low-grade products 
and by the advertising and selling of "country sausage" 
and "country cured hams' ' as the real article, when in fact 
they are the manufactured products of the packers, and it 
is his purpose to try and enlighten the people along these 
lines. 

Mr. S. Henry Skelton has been connected with the pack- 
ing house business for about forty years, or since he was a 
boy, and he has traveled over many foreign countries in the 



74 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

interest of the North Packing House. Thirty years ago it 
was possibly the second largest packing house in the United 
States. The Squire House and North House were then the 
two largest in the country, especially for summer packing. 
There is hardly a man living who has as much knowledge of 
the trade. You will note from the following letters the 
fight he is making against the Trust in trying to establish 
an independent packing house in New England. 

MR. SKELTON'S LETTER ON THIS SUBJECT. 

1014 Beacon St., Brookline, 

March 11, 1909. 

Mr. R. R. Shiel, Riggs House, Washington, D. C: 

My Dear Sir — I received yours of the 9th and was 
pleased to hear from you. I wish to thank you for your 
kind invitation to visit you at Washington and nothing 
would give me more pleasure, but at present I have a lame 
knee, which prevents me from getting around very well 
except on crutches, this was from an accident at the farm, 
but I am expecting it will be well again shortly. 
" I am still working to get a license for packing house, 
the Swifts, have been able to shut me out in Everett and 
Chelsea, but am now going to try another place, they use 
both money and influence to prevent any independent plant 
from getting a foothold. Just now the papers here are full 
of the fact that they are selling infected beef cows which 
are condemned by' the State as having tuberculosis. It 
seems the New England Dressed Meat and Wool Company, 
a Swift concern, have a contract with the State to kill, and 
take tuberculosis cows, and those which the State inspectors 



With the Beef Trust 75 

say are only slightly infected they have been getting the 
government stamp on as fit for food and selling them for 
good meat. The Boston Post, a prominent morning daily, 
took the matter up and the public are up in arms about it. 
Their man Walter Glidden is in the governor 's council, and 
the governor is getting into hot water for allowing the 
practice to continue. With all their money and the profits 
of the big monopoly they are not satisfied unless they can 
make more money out of this tainted beef. It will react on 
them by causing people to eat less beef for a time. En- 
closed is list of plants the Swift people control in New Eng- 
land, from which you can see there is not much left, and 
how bad the trade here want an independent plant. 

I will any time give you any information you want; 
don't hesitate to ask. I could give volumes on this Swift 
and Beef Trust workings. Damage claims are one of the 
late schemes for rebates from railroad companies. 

Yours truly, 
(Signed) S. H. Skelton. 

April 20th, 1909. 
Mr. R. B. Shiel, Washington, D. C: 

Dear Sir — I have your telegrams and letter. I have been 
spending so much time in trying to get a license within 
reasonable distance from the market district of Boston that 
have not had time for anything else. AVhen I think I have 
got what I am after I find the Trust influence and money 
have blocked me, but am still at it. and am trying new town 
now where the promise looks good. 

I regret I have not had the time to put few facts in 
shape for you and in such a way as not to offend my friends 



76 Twenty Years in Hell 

here, who in certain ways are trying to help me. It is the 
advice of some of these friends that I should not tell what 
I know of the forming of the Beef Monopoly, as they think 
it might hurt me with some of the moneyed interests, who 
so strongly support the Swifts with money they loan them, 
as you know, notwithstanding their $50,000,000 of capital, 
they are still heavy borrowers of the banks and pri- 
vate capitalists, and on the whole I think possibly it is best 
for me, while I am trying to get back into the business in an 
independent way, to keep still on the subject of Swift's 
Beef Trust and monopoly of the food supply. You 
will, of course, have ample matter without my saying any 
more than I have already said to you in former letters, for 
the present at least. 

Wishing you every success, with best regards, 

Yours truly, 

S. Henry Skelton. 



FRUIT QUESTION, ETC. 

On the fruit question nothing can be more encouraging 
than the situation as outlined by Mr. J. M. Zion. He shows 
what the future holds for Indiana in this respect, and he 
proves it by citing his own experience as a fruit raiser who 
has banked heavily on the value of Hoosier soil and climate 
for fruit. 

Captain Templeton 's letter is well worthy of perusal, not 
only because he has been for half a century the largest in- 
dividual feeder of stock in Indiana, but also because of the 
possibilities — in fact, the certainties — which he points to as 
the result of intelligent breeding and feeding of animals. 



With the Beef Trust 77 

Mr. Templeton, like his father, was born on a farm, No- 
vember 20, 1829, and since I860 has been engaged in the live 
stock business. In 1853 he went to Iowa and began ship- 
ping to Chicago, Buffalo and New York. In his early day 
he knew Mr. Solon Robinson, who w T as the first man to re- 
port the live stock market in the NeAV York Tribune. At 
that time 5,000 cattle would glut the market, and a reduc- 
tion of 50 cents a hundred would cause it to fall. During 
the war, from a private in the Third Iowa Infantry, he rose 
to the position of Captain of Company F. 

Mr. McCrea is right in his statement that the packers 
should be protected as well as the farmers, and that inspec- 
tion should not be overlooked on the farm. The way this 
could be done would be to compel the farmers to get rid of 
the low grade and " knot-head " and "pennyroyal" cattle, 
and to breed up their live stock. The farms also should be 
inspected, and when disease is found among the live stock, 
the owners should be instructed in the care and treatment 
of the diseased animals so as to obviate the spread of the 
disease among the others and to prevent it from becoming 
widespread. This is now done in Denmark. They should 
also be instructed in the care of the sound animals, and in 
the improvement of the sanitary condition of the stock. 

You fully understand that the Beef Trust has absorbed 
practically all of these packing houses in the East which I 
have mentioned and which I bought for for years, such as 
the John P. Squire & Co., North Packing Co., and "White, 
Pevey & Dexter, and that time and again the Trust has 
throttled the smaller dealers and many large ones, so that 
they have been obliged to make the consumer suffer. 

I venture to assert that every gentleman on the Com- 



78 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

mission on Country Life has had flaunted before him on the 
menus of not a few first-class hotels the phrases, " Beech- 
nut Bacon," "Beechnut Ham," etc. There is no greater 
fraud than this ignorance or deceit on the part of hotel 
stewards and proprietors. 

First-class meat cannot be gotten out of hogs fed on mast 
of any kind. Hogs fed on beechnuts or mast always sell in 
New York one to three dollars per hundred less than corn- 
fed hogs! At present prices they will sell three to four 
dollars per hundred less. In Boston they won't use beech- 
nut fattened hogs, as the lard and bacon will run to oil. 
They are what is known to the trade as ' ' soft ' ' hogs. Still 
slop-fed hogs run the same and sell two to three dollars less 
than corn-fed. 



Letters of Individual Expression 



MR. E. 'DAY'S LETTER. 

London, Ohio, December 14, 1908. 
Mr. R. R. Shiel: 

Dear Sir — Your letter received and in reply will say 
that blue grass seems to be a natural production of this 
section. It has always grown here as long as I can remem- 
ber. I have lived here all my life. I am now fifty-eight 
years old. We have now mostly the Shropshire sheep. 
There are still a few Merinos. 

My father's name -was Henry O'Day. He was born in 
Fairfield county, Ohio, and came to this county (Madison) 
when about eighteen years old and settled near Mr. Ster- 
ling. He always lived on a farm and did considerable in 
the shipping business from about 1865 to 1880. He died 
in 1883. 

I lived on a farm till I was thirt}^ years old. I then 
moved to London, having become engaged in the shipping 
business, w T hich I have followed ever since in connection 
with looking after my farming interests. 
Yours respectfully, 

E. O'Day. 



MR. ALEX. J. McCREA'S LETTER, 

Cleveland, Ohio, December 28, 1908. 
Mr. R. R. Shiel, Shiel Apartment House, Indianapolis, hid.: 
My Dear Sir — Your favor of the 22d, with enclosures 
mentioned, was duly received. I also acknowledge receipt 

(79) 



80 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

of a communication from your Mr. E. A. Byrkit, enclos- 
ing copy of your letter under date of November 2d, to 
President Roosevelt. 

Most gladly would I comply with your request to give 
you a comparative statement for the past forty years of 
general farm conditions, live stock, poultry and soil of 
Ohio, but I have not sufficient data on hand to give you the 
required information, neither can I answer your other ques- 
tions about levees, drainage, scientific farming and colleges, 
as it would require more time to look up reference on these 
subjects than I can now spare. 

In a general way I know that the farm conditions and 
the raising of cattle, hogs and sheep in Ohio during the 
past forty years have undergone considerable changes, 
showing, in central and southern sections, a large percent- 
age of gain for betterment to date. 

You speak of the poor quality of "knot-head" cattle 
and ' ' razor-back ' ' hogs in some portions of the South Cen- 
tral States, advising government intervention to bring 
about the better grade of cattle and swine. Do you think 
if the people of the mountainous regions of Tennessee and 
Kentucky were furnished with better animals for breeding 
purposes, that they would give them any better care in 
housing and feeding than they now give to the "knot 
heads' ' and " razor-backs' '? Your article on "Conditions 
of Live Stock" in Denmark partially answers these ques- 
tions. 

You commend the President for his betterment of the 
meat inspection law. It is true that the Bureau of Animal 
Industry, under the supervision of the Department of Agri- 
culture, has accomplished wonders in the improvement of 



With the Beef Trust 81 

conditions in raising cattle, hogs and sheep in the United 
States; but the betterment has all been for the farmer. 
In the meat inspection law no protection at all is given the 
packer, whose margin of profit under the most favorable 
conditions is small. A packer can give full price for ani- 
mals that apparently look healthy, but which show disease, 
or are unfit for human food on post-mortem inspection. 
In this case the loss falls entirely on the packer, and he 
has no redress. The meat inspection law, to be just, 
should commence at the farm, making it impossible and 
unlawful for the producer of a diseased or unhealthy an- 
imal to offer the same for sale for food purposes. 

I have read your letters and articles with considerable 
interest and commend the unselfish spirit which animates 
you to bring about better conditions in the live stock in- 
dustry ; but while you are about it, I would kindly ask that 
you try to benefit the packer also, as he is just as necessary 
to the consuming public as the farmer. An improvement in 
the meat inspection laws is what the packer ought to be 
granted, and I hope the same can be embodied in your bill 
when it is introduced. 

You ask regarding myself and ancestors. My ancestors 
emigrated from the Highlands of Scotland, to the north of 
Ireland. My father emigrated to America, in 1838, and 
settled in Ithaca, N. Y., where I was born October 15th, 
1811. I came to Cleveland in September, 1862, and went 
to work for C. J. Comstock & Company. John D. Rocke- 
feller was keeping books at the time for Comstock & Com- 
pany, and I was delegated to sweep out his office. My 
brother James was the Company. Afterwards the firm 
was changed to Comstock, McCrea & Company. At that 

[6] 



82 • Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

time Cleveland was a great beef packing center, and our 
firm did a large business in packing cattle and hogs and 
shipping the products principally to New York, with con- 
siderable going up the lakes. There were hundreds of cattle 
driven in by drovers, and grazed in the suburbs of Cleve- 
land, waiting for chances to get to the slaughter house, 
which has all been changed. 

In 1867 I went to Omaha and worked for Messrs. Sheely 
Bros. Co. They had a contract to furnish salt pork for the 
Indians quartered at Sioux City. I, having served my 
time in the packing house in Cleveland, was the only avail- 
able man in Omaha to salt meat, and I claim to be the first 
one to do the packing of pork in Omaha. I came back to 
Cleveland and went with Comstock, McCrea & Company. 
I was their purchasing and sales agent for five yearsj when 
I branched out with my brother James tinder the firm 
name of James McCrea & Company, and later built the 
plant I am now in, known as the Ohio Provision Company, 
which has been doing a successful business since 1882. 

Regarding the Rose brothers : I was told by their old 
foreman, James Gerneds, of Buffalo, that Benjamin, George 
and Edward Rose came from England to Buffalo in 1848 
and worked under Gerneds in Bulimore's Packing establish- 
ment. They afterwards came to Cleveland and opened a 
pork store under the name of Rose Bros., on Ontario 
street. Later Benjamin withdrew from the firm and 
started on his own "hook," taking in later Chauncey Pren- 
tis, and calling the firm Rose & Prentis. Afterwards Pren- 
tis withdrew, and Benjamin Rose incorporated the firm 
of the Cleveland Provision Company, which has done a very 
large, and I understand very successful business. All of 



With the Beef Tkust 83 

the three brothers mentioned have died. They were all 
good citizens, and honorable competitors. 

With the best wishes for your .success in this undertak- 
ing, and kindest regards, I am. as ever, 
Your sincere friend, 

Alex. J. McCrea. 



MR. S. F. LOCKRIDGE'S LETTER. 

Westwood Shorthorns, 
s. f. lockridge, proprietor. 

Greencastle, Ind., December 11, 1908. 

Mr. R. B. Shiel: 

Dear Sir — Your favor of the 5th inst., with enclosed 
copy of letter from Secretary to Chairman of "Commis- 
sion on Country Life," was duly received. 

I shall endeavor to answer your questions in the order 
you have stated them. In the first place, from a beef point 
of view, I do not believe the cattle of this county, or of this 
State, outside of the pure bred herds, are as good as they 
were forty years ago. The reason for this deterioration is 
very apparent to any one acquainted with the facts. Up 
to the early seventies all the improvement in the county 
on the common stocks was made by the use of pure bred 
Shorthorn bulls. Dr. A. C. Stevenson and Joseph Allen, 
of Greencastle, imported Shorthorns from Great Britain 
into this county, in 1853. Pure bred Shorthorn bulls had 
been used here for a: number of years prior to that event. 
The result was that at the period I mention, the early 
seventies, we had a class of cattle in this countv that 



84 Twenty Years in Hell 

showed all the characteristics of the pure bred Shorthorn, 
in other words they were high grade Shorthorns. Now, 
then, what followed. About this time, 1870 to 1872, began 
the importation of new breeds of cattle from Europe. ' First 
came the Jersey or Alderney from the Channel Islands — 
dairy cattle that had been bred for ages from the stand- 
point alone of milk and butter production. They had none, 
or very little, of the beef -making characteristics. Our 
American farmer with his natural tendency to seek out 
the new and untried, urged on by his wife, who had no 
interest whatever in the beef proposition, but centered all 
her ambition in the milk and butter problem, concluded he 
could make a ten-strike by crossing his high grade Short- 
horn on a Jersey bull and thus kill two birds with one 
stone. The result was unsatisfactory, as anyone with the 
knowledge of the science of breeding could have told him. 
Instead of halting or retracing his steps, he continued his 
ruinous policy by trying a cross of Holstein, another dairy 
breed, and then still further accelerated his downward 
course by an infusion of Hereford or Aberdeen Angus 
blood, new breeds from England and Scotland. Naturally 
the result of this miscegenation was a mongrel that could 
not be classed either with the beef or milk breeds, and was 
a losing proposition to everyone into whose hands he 
chanced to fall. 

Such in a great measure is the type of cattle in this 
county today, and I may also say of the central "Western 
States. 

The best cattle for beef production exclusively will be 
found on the ranches of the West. For a number of years 
past the far-sighted owners of the great ranges have used 



With the Beef Trust 85 

only pure bred bulls of the beef breeds, Shorthorn and 
Hereford, and from their pastures only can we obtain 
steers, in any number, unadulterated with the dairy breeds. 

What I have said as to the cattle of our Central States 
Avill apply also to other breeds of domesticated animals, 
horses, sheep and swine. They have been crossed to such 
an extent that the characteristics of each have been lost 
in the heterogeneous combine. 

You speak of Montgomery county as having gone 
ahead of Monroe and Putnam and Tippecanoe, in each of 
which there is a college. I am inclined to think that an in- 
vestigation would show that Montgomery county has little, 
if any, in improvement in live stock over other counties of 
the State, and the universities in each, being altogether 
literary, could in no wise affect the live stock industry. 
Purdue University, being a strictly agricultural college, 
supported by the State, and devoted to the interests of 
agriculture and live stock simply, should in the nature of 
the case excel purely literary colleges in the way of farm 
education. 

Strictly speaking, blue grass was never established in 
Putnam county, or in Indiana. It is indigenous to the 
soil. Kentucky, that has for years been heralded as the 
blue grass State par excellence, got its first seed from the 
territory of Indiana during the War of 1812. The soldiers 
from Kentucky who were fighting the Indians in the then 
territory of Indiana, found the blue grass growing luxuri- 
antly about the deserted Indian villages, and noting the 
avidity with which their horses partook of the grass, 
stripped the seed from the stems and carried it with them 
on their return home. 



86 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

I have heard my grandfather, who was a soldier of 
1812, say that near these Indian villages where the forests 
had been cleared and the sunlight admitted, the blue grass 
was often found, to use his own expression., " belly deep to 
a horse." 

Some thirty odd years ago the late Col. Tom Dowling, 
of Terre Haute, then a member of the State Board of 
Agriculture, related to me the following incident: He 
was a great admirer of Henry Clay, the statesman, and at 
one time paid Mr. Clay a visit at the latter 's home at Ash- 
land, near Lexington, Ky. Mr. Clay was a lover of fine 
stock, and had made several important importations of 
cattle and horses from England. The two men strolled 
over the estate looking at and admiring the live stock, and 
finally brought up at the barn, where Colonel Dowling no- 
ticed some very fine blue grass, cut and tied in bundles, as 
was then the custom. He expressed his thanks to Mr. Clay 
for the manner in which he had been entertained, and 
asked the favor of taking home with him some of the 
original Kentucky blue grass seed. Mr. Clay complied 
with his request, but smiled as he said, "Do you know 
that Kentucky got its first blue grass seed from the terri- 
tory of Indiana at a point near Fort Harrison, just above 
Terre Haute, a short time before it became a State V 3 

The late Prof. John Collet, State Geologist, told me 
about the same time, that blue grass was indigenous to 
Indiana; that its natural home was a clay subsoil on a 
limestone "foundation, and that these conditions were found 
in a perfect state in nineteen counties in Indiana running 
diagonally across the State from the northwest to the 
southeast. This belt, of course, would be south of the 



With the Beef Trust 87 

prairie lands, and Putnam county would be in the heart of 
it. While I believe that blue grass can be successfully 
grown in almost every State of our Union with proper care 
and cultivation, yet I think there is no question whatever 
that its original home was in our own State of Indiana. 

My father, Andrew Malone Lockridge, was born in 
Montgomery county, Ky., March 30, 1814. His father 
died when he was twelve years old, leaving his widowed 
mother with nine children of whom he was the eldest son, 
his brother Robert, the youngest child, having been born 
about the time of his father's death. My grandfather 
Lockridge, sometime before his death in 1826, had, by 
entry and purchase, procured land in the north part of 
Putnam county, this State. In the fall of 1835, when my 
father was twenty-one years of age, the family moved from 
Kentucky to this State. One of my father's sisters married 
Mr. Charles Bridges, who was the father of William and 
James Bridges, whom you probably knew in the course of 
your dealings in this county. 

Very truly yours, 

S. F. Lockridge. 



MR. JOHN L. MORGAN'S LETTER, 

Marco, Ind., December 17, 1908. 

7?. R. Shiel, Esq., Indianapolis, IncL: 

My Dear Mr. Shiel — In reply to your inquiry as to my 
views on the betterment of the live stock interest of the 
county, beg to say I am heartily in accord with your views, 
and certainly think there is plenty of room for the build- 
ing up of all kinds of live stock as well as poultry, etc. 



88 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

When my father came to Indiana, in 1854, this par- 
ticular part of Indiana, viz., Greene county, was almost a 
wilderness; nothing but wild hogs three to five years old, 
frogs and malaria. But now, by the combined efforts of a 
few progressive farmers in this particular part of the 
county we have largely half to thoroughbred breeds of 
both cattle and hogs, and hogs that thirty years ago took 
from two and one-half to three years to make them weigh 
225 pounds to 250 pounds can now be made to weigh above 
at six to eight months old, besides producing much more 
of the high-priced cuts of meat, and particularly is this 
condition more noticeable in the scrub cattle of thirty years 
ago and the thoroughbred cattle of today. And all these 
changes have been brought about by the united efforts of a 
few men, and no help from either State or Government. 
I think it should be a law that no man should be allowed 
to keep a male animal unless he be a thoroughbred; and 
if that were the case in a few years all our live stock would 
be of the very best. 

Aside from live stock, I am very much interested in the 
breeding up of seed corn and other grains, and in general 
raising the standard of all breeds of live stock as well as all 
agricultural products. And I do think it would be far bet- 
ter for the masses of the people, if the Government would 
pay more attention to the up-building of live stock, poultry, 
etc. ; to the drainage of swamp lands, the building of 
levees, etc., than giving so much attention, and paying out 
large sums of money looking after the fish and game of 
this country. It is true the game and fish should be pro- 
tected, but by their protection does not mean an increase of 
productiveness of the soil nor an increase of taxes to the 
country. 



With the Beef Tkust 89 

Less than twenty years ago the first dredge ditch was 
dug in Greene county, and now practically all the swamp 
lands are redeemed and in cultivation, and land twenty 
years ago that could hardly be sold at any price and when 
it did sell could be bought for five to ten dollars per acre, 
today is worth and has ready sale at $125 to $150 per acre 
and is paying 10 per cent, interest on these prices. Thus 
you see what thorough drainage will do. But in redeeming 
all these vast areas of swamp land it worked some hard- 
ship on quite a few land owners, as in many instances the 
ditch assessments ranged from $5 to $10 per acre, and as 
the owners of these lands had no income, they had to sell. 
But this has all been done and the present owners are now 
enjoying the income from fertile and productive lands. 

I also think there should be more attention given to our 
agricultural colleges. We should have educated raisers of 
live stock and farmers as well as educated lawyers and 
doctors ; there should be a united effort to make the farms 
productive, attractive and remunerative, and by so doing, 
keep the "boys on the farm." With best wishes, I am, 

Very truly, 

Jno. L. Morgan. 



MR. W. I. S. PINNELL'S LETTER. 

Kansas, III., December 7, 1908. 

R. R. Shiel, Indianapolis, Ind. : 

Dear Sir — In reply to yours of the 5th inst., I will 
say my grandparents first settled in Culpepper county, 
Culpepper Court House, Va. They removed about 1812 to 
Oldham, Ky., which is about twenty miles south of Louis- 



90 Twenty Years in Hell 

ville. In November, 1830, I removed with my father and 
grandfather to Edgar county, Illinois, near where I now 
live. I was two years old at that time. Have since lived 
seventy-eight years in this same voting precinct. 

The weather at the time we landed in Illinois was ex- 
tremely cold, the snow was two feet deep on the level. 
Long and tedious were the days at that time for these old 
pioneers — no money to do with and not much needed. It 
was fierce settling, and everything was in a wild state. 
Deer, turkeys and the much-dreaded wolf were in abun- 
dance. Fine timber and prairie grass grew prolific. There 
was no grass here at that time except the wild prairie grass. 
The blue grass commenced to make its appearance shortly 
after the settlers began to cultivate the soil. I would say, 
about 1840. 

About my mother's people, I have but little knowledge, 
except to say my father married mother in Kentucky, 
where I was born November 14, 1828. Mother's maiden 
name was Frances Marshall Estos, She was an aunt of 
C. T. Estos, now a resident of Brockton, 111. You will 
remember "Toot" Estos — we all called him by that name 
when we used to be in business. You well know my three 
sons. J. E. attended the N. W. C. University, your city, 
for two years. H. F. attended a business and economical 
school at Bloomington, 111., and W. 0. P. attended the 
common schools here. 

We have noted with regret Richard Webber's demise in 
the papers. He was the best butcher this country has ever 
known. He bought practically all of our production of 
cattle for more than thirty years. It is a great loss to the 
business to lose such a man as Richard Webber, and also 



With the Beef Tkust 91 

Mr. Eastman, who bought many of our Illinois cattle. 
He was a grand, good man. No one could palm Jerseys 
off on him. Also John P. Squire, of Boston, who has been 
a buyer of our hogs for more than forty years. He was 
known as the greatest man in the trade thirty-five and 
forty years ago. 

The good feeders have always suffered by going to the 
market where they have to sell their stuff to men who have 
no judgment of the kinds and quality and where commis- 
sion men in selling a string of cattle force in the sale of a 
load of Jersey steers at a higher price, by lowering the 
price on the man who has the load of high grade cattle. 

I remember well the fourteen hundred hogs that you 
contracted of myself and my cousin W. 0. Pinnell. I 
think it was in the year '68. Other men here had hogs 
contracted for when the decline came but didn't get them 
off; but you took our hogs for which you had contracted 
and paid us the contract price of $8.75. 

Yours, truly, 

W. I. S. Pinnell. 



CAPTAIN LEROY TEMPLETON'S LETTER. 
Indianapolis, Ind., December 24, 1908. 

R. R. Skid, Esq.: 

Sir — Allow me to congratulate you on the good work 
you have engaged in, to wit, the increase of the meat sup- 
ply, butter, milk, poultry and poultry products — an in- 
crease not only as to quantity, but also improvement of the 
quality. 

Will our high-bred race horses, trotters and pacers ever 
excel Dan Patch? Can our prize cattle, sheep and hogs 



92 Twenty Tears in Hell 

be still further improved? From my experience and ob- 
servation of sixty years, together with close study, I an- 
swer, ' ' Yes, without doubt. ' ' What has been done in the 
past by individual effort in breeding high-grade live stock 
can be greatly augmented by State aid in passing such 
laws as will put a stop to the reproducing of low-grade 
animals. Our meat animals can be bred to any type de- 
sired by selecting with care in crossing the blood. High- 
grade breeding, together with care in feeding to maturity, 
will soon raise the percentage of good meat. 

Great improvement has been made within the last 
twenty years in the breeding and feeding of cattle, sheep 
and hogs, and a wonderful increase has been marked in 
weight of our poultry of all kinds in the last few years. 
Less than fifty years ago the horse called Dexter trotted 
and made the first record of a three-minute gait. At that 
time it was thought to be a wonderful thing for a horse to 
do, and that it would probably never be beaten. Now at 
this time the best record is under two minutes. If this 
great change can be made in the horse in and through 
breeding and feeding, surely like results can be obtained 
on other lines in cattle, sheep and swine. Nature study, 
together with intelligent energy applied in breeding meat 
animals, cannot but result in raising the standard of all 
kinds of meat consumed by man. 

I have learned that the crossing of species and selec- 
tion wisely directed are great and powerful means for the 
transformation of all life in the animal kingdom along 
lines that lead constantly upward. The crossing of species 
is to me paramount. Upon it, wisely directed and accom- 
panied by a rigid selection of the best, and as rigid exclu- 



With the Beef Tkust 93 

sion of the poorest, rests the hope of all progress. No 
scrub or inferior animal should be allowed to reproduce its 
kind. Sterilize all male animals of low and inferior grade. 
Let this be done by authority of law and made practical by 
government commission. The mere crossing of species un- 
accompanied by selection, wise supervision, intelligent care 
and patience is not likely to result in marked good and 
may result in harm. Unorganized effort is often vicious 
in its tendencies. Let me lay stress on the favorable con- 
ditions now presented in the United States. I think it fair 
to say that we are now on the eve of enjoying the grandest 
opportunity ever presented to develop the finest meat ani- 
mals ever produced in the history of the world. Let us 
adopt the philosophy and teaching of our great authors in 
the science of natural history, "Sexual selection and the 
survival of the fittest," in all our domestic animals. 

As suggested above, let us all bend our efforts first to 
accomplish this improvement. Later on we can take up 
production in a wider sense and the transportation and 
distribution of all food products. 

Yours truly, 

Leroy Templeton. 



JUDGE T. B. HOWARD'S LETTER. 

South Bend, Ind., December 17, 1908. 
Bon, B. R. Shiel, Indianapolis : 

My Dear Sir — Yours in reference to "Commission on 
Country Life" received. I wish I had the time to write you 
my views in full as to the important questions to be con- 
sidered by that commission. The reclamation of our bar- 
ren hilltops, comforts of farm life, and all that concerns the 



94 Twenty Years in Hell 

waste of our vast natural wealth in connection with these 
things, are entitled to the wisest thought of the best minds 
of America. 

My duties as Dean of the Law School of the University 
of Notre Dame, however, so absorb my time that I cannot 
write to you as I would. It was my privilege while a mem- 
ber of the Indiana Senate to introduce and have passed 
bills for the removal of the limestone ledge in the Kankakee 
at Momence, a little West of the Indiana line. Sixty-five 
thousand dollars in all were appropriated from the State 
treasury, and the result of the work has been of immense 
benefit to the million of acres of our Kankakee swamp 
lands. But the work, although good, was not sufficient. 
The rock obstruction in the river was lowered less than 
four feet, while it should be to ten feet. It is a work, in 
its completeness, to be undertaken only by the general gov- 
ment. Many acres of the lands have been reclaimed by 
private ownership, in connection with the work done by 
the State, and the result is hundreds of acres of the richest 
farming lands in America. But the whole valley should be 
reclaimed, and we should then have what it has often been 
truthfully claimed as the future of this rich region— that it 
is to be "The Garden of Chicago. " 

You are doing a good work, my dear Mr. Shiel, in aid- 
ing the "Commission on Country Life" in its mission for 
bettering the condition of our great rural population. 

I have talked with Mr. Aaron Jones, former President 
of the National Grange, and one of the ablest of all Amer- 
ican farmers, as to the work you are doing, and he fully 
sympathizes with you and your work, and he will write to 
you to say so. Very respectfully yours, 

Timothy E. Howard. 



With the Beef Trust 95 

MR, JOHN L. GREEN'S LETTER. 

Indianapolis, December 23, 1908. 

Mr. R.R.SMel City: 

Dear Sir — The levee you ask about is along the Wabash 
below Vineennes, running: from the city line along the river 
down to the C. & V. R. R. bridge, a distance of about ten 
to twelve miles. The railroad grade up to Vineennes from 
the bridge, and the levee built along the Wabash, protect 
about twelve thousand acres of land, as fine for corn and 
wheat as can be found anywhere in the State. This land, 
before William H. Brevort built this levee along the river, 
could be bought for $15 to $35 per acre, while now it read- 
ily sells for $100 per acre, and some few pieces have been 
sold for $125. I can remember when this land was all 
covered with water most of the year. I have spent most 
of my life there. I was born there in 1846 and lived there 
until 1894. My father, William Green, located there in 
1833, and his home is there now. I heard him say in the 
past two years that nothing would do as much good for 
that part of the State as to levee the Wabash from Terre 
Haute to the mouth. It would redeem enough land on both 
sides of the river that the corn and wheat produced would 
pay the cost in a very few years. No finer corn and wheat 
are grown anywhere than in the Wabash River bottoms. 
Knox county, Indiana, and Lawrence county, Illinois, pro- 
duce as much wheat and corn, and as fine in quality, as is 
produced anywhere. 

I can remember in younger days that three to five steam- 
boats of good size were busy the year around in hauling 
corn and wheat, covering the distance from Terre Haute to 
the mouth of the river, while now you seldom see any boats 



96 Twenty Years in Hell 

of size. Occasionally you will see some little boat with one 
or two barges trying to find water enough to get along. 
While there is a great deal of money being spent to protect 
the fish and game, why not look to the interest of the many 
by protecting the low land along the river, and land that 
will increase in value, so the wheat and corn produced will 
pay the cost in a very few years? 

William H. Brevort, who built this short levee himself 
at his expense, should have the thanks of many a small 
farmer who lives along the river bank, and now derives 
the benefit of his work. There is an effort being made now 
to build a levee from what is known as St. Thomas over to 
the hills at Deckers, on the E. & T. H. R. R., which, with 
what has been done by Brevort, will redeem some fifty to 
sixty thousand acres of as fine corn and wheat land as can 
be found anywhere. The same land now is not worth over 
fifty dollars an acre, while if protected it would readily 
sell for $100. I could tell you of other lands that would 
be benefited, but think this will give you an idea of what 
you have asked me for. Yours truly, 

J. L. Green. 



With the Beef Trust 



97 




WEST BADEN SPRINGS HOTEL. 
WEST BADEN, IND. 

MR. LEE WILEY SINCLAIR'S LETTER. 

West Baden, Ind., December 9, 1908. 

R. R. Shiel, Indianapolis, Ind.: 

Dear Sir — Yours of December 7th received, and at your 
request am sending you the following : 

Lee Wiley Sinclair, capitalist, born at Cloverdale, Put- 
nam county, Indiana, February 18, 1836 ; reared on a farm, 
educated in country schools. Was engaged in the woolen 
mills business at G-reencastle, Salem, Indiana, and South 
Chicago, Illinois, until 1888. In 1888 bought one-third in- 
terest in the West Baden Springs and in 1901 acquired en- 
tire interest of partnership, organized and is president of 
the West Baden Springs Company. In 1902 erected at this 
resort a hotel costing one million dollars. This hotel is un- 
doubtedly the most unique and complete in the world. Is 
now, and has been, president of the Bank of Salem since 
1880 ; is also president of the West Baden National Bank, 
which he organized in 1902. He is interested in various in- 
dustries in the State. Yours very truly, 

"Pres." 

m 



98 Twenty Years in Hell 

MR. FRANK F. DEAN'S LETTER. 

Solon, Ind., December 13, 1908. 

R. R. Shiel, Indianapolis, Ind.: 

Dear Comrade — Yours of the 7th inst. received last 
night, the delay being caused by it going to Marble Hill, 
which is not my postofiice now. I am sorry for the delay, 
but it can't be helped now. 

In answer to your inquiry, I would say that the soil of 
our hillsides is eminently suited to blue grass, and it will 
grow there equal to any place in the country. The cliffs 
are magnesian and blue shell limestone. 

As to apples and peaches, that while some localities may 
produce better apples, it is doubtful ; and as to peaches, we 
have demonstrated in past years that we can beat the world 
in quality and flavor. I have sold peaches in Cincinnati in 
competition with peaches from Delaware, Ohio and Ken- 
tucky, and in Chicago in competition with Michigan 
peaches, frequently at double the prices they brought. 

Mr. Leland, proprietor of the Leland Hotel in Chicago, 
who was a California man, once told me that he would 
rather have one bushel of my peaches, for his own eat- 
ing, than a carload of California peaches, Twenty years 
ago the hills along the Ohio river on both sides were cov- 
ered with peach trees, my father, self and brothers having 
125,000 trees in bearing, resulting in overstocking the mar- 
ket to the extent that the planting of more orchards ceased, 
and the orchards dying out, there is not many grown in 
this vicinity now, although the industry is being revived. 

My brother. Hi ram P., who lives at 3440 N. Salem street, 
Indianapolis, in connection with some other Indianapolis 



With the Beef Teust 99 

parties, set out 9,000 peach and apple trees in the last two 
years, and expect to plant 30,000 more in the Spring. 

I believe that the river hillsides would produce fine 
grapes also. 

If I can do anything further to aid you, let me know 
and I will do what I can. Yours very truly, 

Frank F. Dean. 



MR, E. R. SMITH'S LETTER, 

Indianapolis, Ind., December 19, 1908. 

Hon. E. E. Shiel, Indianapolis, Ind.: 

My Dear Sir — In replying to your question concerning 
rural life in Franklin county, Indiana, and my relations 
thereto, I beg you to indulge a bit of personal history that 
will in part answer your inquiry. For the past twenty 
years I have traveled in the States West of Pennsylvania, 
and as my early life was spent on a farm, it has been easy 
for me to keep up my bucolic interests, especially since I 
have had the general management of the home farm for 
many years. 

The most of my traveling has been in Montana, Idaho. 
Colorado, Wyoming and the Coast States, and I have 
watched with great interest the discussions of such ques- 
tions as "The extension of wheat and corn belts, "The 
irrigation of arid lands," "The grazing of sheep and cattle 
on public lands," etc., etc. The changes brought about in 
these Western States have been like bringing new worlds 
into view. Of course, I have always studied them in com- 
parison with my home state, Indiana. For instance, I have 
seen cattle and sheep grazed on the Western plains with 



100 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

great profit, where there is not as much grass on five acres 
as there is in southern Indiana on one acre. I have seen 
Western apples sell in our local markets at top prices al- 
though they were in no way to be compared to our home 
apples in flavor and color. I saw the orchards of Missouri, 
southern Illinois and Ohio develop and produce wonder- 
fully. I could see no reason for Indiana being behind ex- 
cept for want of trial, and finally after testing the lands in 
many States I decided that there is no better place to raise 
sheep and fruit, especially apples, than in southern In- 
diana. 

I examined many places anfl. finally came upon the 
"Bill Day" farm at Laurel, Franklin county, Indiana. 
Here is a tract of 750 acres of rolling land that is well 
gra&sed, well watered, and well wooded with choice hard- 
wood timber. There is but little plow land, but an abun- 
dance of orchard slope and blue grass pasture. 

Before purchasing the land, I asked horticultural ex- 
perts from Indiana and Ohio to visit the place and make de- 
tailed reports as to the advisability of planting a commer- 
cial orchard there. Their reports gave unqualified endorse- 
ment to the plan. They discussed the top soil, subsoil, 
stratas, surface drainage, soil drainage, air drainage, slope 
of land, climate, etc., and found nothing wanting. Prof. 
Cox, of Ohio, pronounced it the most desirable orchard site 
he had ever examined. Upon the recommendation of these 
men and our best nursery men, we have now planted 4,000 
trees, all apple trees and all of the highest class fruit — 
Jonathans, Grimes, Goldens, Wine Saps and Roman Beau- 
ties. We shall add 6,000 more of the same varieties next 
spring, planting in nil about 800 acres. We are equipped 



With the Beef Teust 101 

to give these trees and the ground the best possible care. 
Ten years hence a half crop from this orchard, at present 
prices, will yield $150,000. 

In addition to our orchards, we will carry a herd of 
thoroughbred sheep — the Hampshiredowns. These we will 
breed exclusively for the spring lamb trade. They cannot 
but do well on the blue grass hills. 

Trusting I have answered your questions, I am, 

Very truly yours, 

B. R. Smith. 



MR. J. IVL ZION'S LETTER. 
Clark 's Hill, Ind., December 16, 1908. 

Mr. R. R. Shiel, Indianapolis, Ind.: 

Wm. Zion was born at Washington C. H., Penn., Feb- 
ruary 12, 1812. Started West in 1832, stopping at Rush- 
ville, Ind., where he married, and journeyed into Boone 
county, Indiana, in 1833. He became sheriff of Boone 
county in 1839. About 1844 he hewed down and "cleared" 
20 acres of heavy white oak and walnut timber. The land 
is now a part of the town of Lebanon. He planted seven 
acres of apples such as Vandever, Bellflower, Northern Spy, 
Jemton, Golden Russet, etc., all of which produced excel- 
lent crops two years out of three, which were shipped to 
Cincinnati, Ohio, in car lots. This orchard became famous 
throughout the State and was profitable for forty years. 

James M. Zion, son of William Zion, was born at Leb- 
anon, Indiana, September 22, 1848. He attended school 
in winter (three months), working on his father's farm and 
orchard before school time and after, and also when there 



102 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

was no school. He became a telegrapher and railroad sta- 
tion agent, going West to San Francisco in 1879. He was a 
close observer of the beginning and development of fruit 
growing in California, Oregon and Washington. Always 
appreciating the Pacific Coast States' apples, pears, plums 
and peaches as the most beautiful grown (with five excep- 
tions) , he yet knew that they did not possess the fine flavor 
of such fruits grown in his father's orchard in Indiana. 
The growing popularity of the Pacific coast fruits in the 
Eastern markets, regardless of their flavor, aroused his 
jealousy for his native State (Indiana) ; and for many 
years he could never buy or hear of apples grown in In- 
diana, as there were not only no apples grown there but 
that it was generally believed apples could not be grown 
in Indiana, especially in the central belt of the State. Such 
was the nature of bulletins sent out by Horticultural and 
Agricultural universities and crude ' ' Experimental' ' Sta- 
tions conducted by Professors who knew no more about 
apples or how to grow them than "Grape" fruit, then un- 
known. As I grew older I became more interested and 
anxious that my native State should be aroused to the fact 
that Indiana could grow successfully the best-flavored and 
(some varieties) most beautiful in the world if her people 
could be taught to adopt modern methods in their orchards, 
and enact good horticultural laws, such as are enjoyed in 
Pacific Coast States. 

Priding in my native State and desiring to do what I 
could to develop the horticultural interests of Indiana, I 
decided to return and dedicate my means and energies to- 
ward proving to the world that Indiana could grow beau- 
i iful apples at a profit. 



With the Beef Tkust 103 

My first step was to purchase 320 acres of good corn, 
wheat, oats and timber land in Tippecanoe county, in the 
year 1889. Fifty acres were thoroughly drained and set 
aside for an apple orchard, to the great surprise of every 
land owner in this part of the State. Many said I might 
as well plant orange trees, and that we could not grow ap- 
ples in Indiana. In fact, our Experiment Stations were re- 
porting the same thing, making an exception in Brown 
county, a county that did not then grow any and today 
does not grow but a few. Under such a cloud of ignorance 
I at once saw I must establish an apple, pear, plum, peach 
and cherry Experiment Station for the benefit of all those 
in my State who could be induced to engage in fruit grow- 
ing, especially apples. Consequently I set aside 10 acres 
for Experiment Station in 1889, and 40 acres for a com- 
mercial orchard. I have conducted both the Experiment 
Station and orchard at an expense of $15,000.00. The 
large number of letters of inquiry, congratulations, thanks, 
etc., received almost daily, and the great and growing in- 
terest in apple growing in our State, brings me gratifica- 
tion — saying nothing about the success of my exhibits: 
first prizes at best grower's exhibit in the State, Gold Medal 
Apple Exhibit St. Louis, 1904; I have secured almost 
enough blue ribbons (first prize) to make a circus tent. 
One barrel of my beautiful apples, 17 to 19% inches in cir- 
cumference, went to "Sherry's," New York, for a swell 
railroad banquet, which I thought not only a good adver- 
tisement for myself but also for my State. Many of my 
friends throughout the State, who had no confidence in my 
enterprise, are now appreciating and planting large or- 
chards. My desires and ambitions toward encouraging 



104 Twenty Years in Hell 

others to plant orchards are satisfied, except that we have 
no horticultural legislation such as that enjoyed by Pa- 
cific Coast States, which is imperative that we should be- 
fore we can make a complete success. I anticipate it at 
next session of Legislature instead of the so-called Nursery 
Inspection Law, the most deceptive and pernicious ever en- 
acted. J. M. Zion. 



MR. A. M. GRAHAM'S LETTER. 

Madison, Ind., December 19, 1908. 

Mr. Roger R. Shiel, Indianapolis, Indiana: 

My Dear Comrade —Your letter received and I gladly 
comply with your request for a brief statement of our 
family history. 

My grandfather, Thomas Graham, was born in Scot- 
land, near Edinburgh, in 1809. He came to America in 
1830 with his wife, and settled in Cincinnati. He was en- 
gaged in the bakery business there, and after one year he 
came to Madison, Indiana, and continued in the bakery 
business. He died in 1861, at the age of fifty-two years. 
He accumulated a competence of more than thirty thousand 
dollars, which was considered a large fortune at that time. 
He was survived by seven sons and one daughter. 

My father, Thomas Graham, was born at Madison in 
1839. He died at the same place in 1901. He was in the 
forefront of Madison's business affairs during his life. He 
was many times elected to office in Jefferson county. He 
entered the army as a private soldier and reached the rank 
of Major in the 39th Indiana Regiment Volunteer Infantry, 
later 8th Indiana Cavalry. 



With the Beef Trust 105 

My father was an ambitious man, and did much for me 
and my brothers. He sent one of them to Europe to fin- 
ish his education for the practice of medicine. This brother, 
Alois B. Graham, is now practicing in Indianapolis, and is 
one of the ranking physicians of that city. Another 
brother, Thomas A. Graham, was sent to Hanover College 
and educated for the Presbyterian ministry. He studied 
theology at Princeton University and has occupied the 
pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church at Richmond, In- 
diana, for the past five years. He is still a very young 
man, and his friends confidently expect great things of him. 
Myself and brother John have been engaged in the manu- 
facturing business, and have been successful. 

My grandfather, over seventy years ago, was impressed 
with the need for agricultural improvements and the bet- 
terment of stock. His business as baker brought him in 
touch with farmers and millers during his day, and many 
were the conferences he had with men of the original stock 
farm and men of the soil about the prospects for the fu- 
ture. 

My father, although a manufacturer, was a close ob- 
server, and often spoke of the needs of the farmer and the 
stock raiser more than he did of the river interests. He 
saw the Ohio dry so often that he almost despaired of its 
importance as a navigable stream; but he had an abiding 
faith in the soil and in the farmer, which he always said 
would be the great sources of wealth in this country. He 
always complained of the lack of quality of the stock in 
his early days, and he had no use for the fishing farmer or 
for the man whom the sun on rising found in bed. 

Major Graham left what was regarded a large fortune. 



106 Twenty Years in Hell 

He was public-spirited and took an active part in promot- 
ing the welfare of his native town. 

As you know, father and you, and your brother James, 
were in the army together and served in the same regiment. 
I have often heard my father recount the many deeds of 
daring and valor performed by you and your brother. 

It is a matter of much regret that I did not pay more 
attention to these things, for they are of much importance, 
and I believe that people should have an intimate knowl- 
edge of their ancestors, but unfortunately we pay too little 
attention to such things. 

Trusting this will give you the facts you want, and with 
best wishes to you and yours, I am your friend, 

A. M. Graham. 



MR. S. HENRY SKELTON'S LETTER. 

Boston Chamber of Commerce, December 23, 1908. 

Mr. U. R. Shiel, Indianapolis, Ind. : 

Dear Sir — Your favor of the 19th received. I doubt if 
any combine, even the Beef People, can be induced to act 
reasonably. Such concerns are worse than the Standard 
Oil can possibly be. The Beef Combine will discount all 
others in its far-reaching effects. They now handle prod- 
uce, eggs, butter and all food products, and make the prices 
dearer instead of cheaper by their methods. They crowd 
the middle man out of business. I have had a time with 
them since July in getting a license for an independent 
packing house at Everett. They have used their influence 
and money freely, and report has it that they spent over 
$8,000 in the city of Everett, about four miles from Bos- 



With the Beef Trust 107 

ton, in shutting me out of getting a license, and they make 
their brag that no man can get a license within ten miles 
of Boston. I am taking my fight with them over into Janu- 
ary, and shall not give up. Will send you copy by next 
mail of circular I issued to the citizens of Everett on this 
matter. 

They are now in Buenos Ayres, and the Schwarzchild & 
Sulzberger Co. are going there also for cattle and sheep 
for their European trade. I presume you will visit that 
point on your trip. I intend going there myself as soon 
as I get my packing house started here. I would like to 
remark here that the duty has got to come off of meat and 
hides, or poor men cannot live here decently. 

I presume I can tell more, for I know more about the 
Swifts getting control of all the Eastern houses than most 
any one else outside of the Swifts themselves. I was head 
man for ten years for the Norths Co. with them, and I know 
a great deal I have never told to any one. They pressed 
me out of business, and made my $225,000 worth of stock 
shrink out of sight by not paying any dividends on the 
North stock for seven years, and by putting the price down 
to $55 a share for what cost me $100. They have paid divi- 
dends of 7 per cent, on North stock for the past two years, 
but pay nothing on Squire's, and won't until they drive the 
few remaining shares into cover. They are coining money 
here now, and have the entire control of New England. 

Answering your question, they bought the control of 
North in January, 1890. I was with them ten }^ears. dur- 
ing which time they always paid dividends and left a good 
surplus. No more dividends were paid until January, 1907, 
or 1908. 



108 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

They bought the Squire plant for 14 cents on the dol- 
lar, and also the bonuses of other parties in interest, said 
to be quite large. They bought the Niles and paid a good 
price. They crowded White, Pevey & Dexter out of busi- 
ness and bought their plant at a favorable price. The Mer- 
win Co. and Sperry & Barnes they consolidated after buy- 
ing the latter, and crowded Coe out. 

You can go all over the country for a like example of 
highhandedness, and not even the Standard Oil will be 
found in it with the beef men. 

Always pleased to hear from you. 

Yours sincerly, 

S. Henry Skelton. 



MR. THOMAS K. MULL'S LETTER. 

Manilla, Ind., December 18, 1908. 

R. B. Shiel, Esq., Indianapolis, Ind.: 

Dear Sir — Your letter of December 5th came during 
my absence from home, and the hope of seeing you was a 
further cause for delay in writing. 

Taking the live stock of Rush county, I believe horses 
and hogs, sheep also, have improved in breeding, but not 
so with cattle. 

Twenty years ago cattle feeders bought their Shorthorn 
cattle here in the county, every farmer having good Short- 
horn cows. Today Jerseys have taken their place, and to 
a large extent feeding cattle are bought elsewhere. 

Last Monday the Meyer boys sold 55 cattle, said to be 
the best cattle going through the Union Stock Yards for 
some time, and they were bought two years ago at Kansas 
City. 



With the Beef Teust 109 

The general condition of the farming community is 
much better than ever before. Three agencies have con- 
tributed to this, I think in the order named: Rural free 
delivery, the telephone, and better roads. 

I thank you very much for your kindly interest, and 
hope to talk to you soon. Respectfully, 

Thos. K. Mull. 

MR. CHARLES S. HERNLY'S LETTER. 
United Industrial Co. 
Indianapolis, Ind., December 29, 1908. 

Mr. R. R. Shiel, Indianapolis. Ind.: 

Dear Sir — In 1882 I was riding on the train up near 
Toledo, Ohio, and looking out of the window saw a dredg- 
ing machine digging a drain, and I got off at the first sta- 
tion the train stopped and got a horse and buggy and a 
man to drive for me and went back and saw this dredging 
machine work. I found this machine in charge of Mr. 
Hosea Stock, and I asked him if he thought that kind of 
machine would dig a ditch in Henry county, Indiana, where 
I live. He said he would insure the thing to do the work 
if there was enough water to float the boat. I told him 
that I knew there would be plenty of water and that I 
would like him to come over and dredge a drain through 
what is known as the Blue River Valley in Henry county, 
Indiana. 

This was the first public improvement that I was con- 
nected with in the county where I was born and reared. I 
returned to my little office in New Castle in a few days and 
found that the ditch law which had been passed by the 



110 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

Legislature of 1881 was operative, and began to get up a pe- 
tition by describing all of the lands in 40-acre tracts or less 
for the distance of ten miles down the Blue River Valley. 
This took a long time and much hard work,, but I never 
was connected with anything that was easy to do and I 
did not get discouraged. After I had the petition com- 
pleted, I went to various farmers along up and down the 
valley, and the prominent ones refused to sign it, because 
they knew that it was wholly impracticable and such a 
scheme never could be made to work and that the bottom 
lands along Blue River Valley were so swampy that they 
never could be reclaimed and that they never would be 
worth anything and they had tried to drain the lands time 
and again hy simply throwing out with the shovel and 
spade, and I met with all sorts of discouragement and 
worked at the proposition fully six months before I got one 
man to agree with me that the plan was feasible and that 
the valley could be reclaimed, thereby getting shut of the 
chills and fever and miasma and reclaiming thousands of 
acres of land that would produce annually from 80 to 100 
bushels of corn per acre. 

One hot summer day in July I took a horse and buggy 
and drove up to Burr Oak Schoolhouse, eight miles above 
New Castle, where we wanteci the ditch to begin, and met 
four or five of the farmers at the upper end of the drain. 
There I succeeded in getting two other men to sign the peti- 
tion, and after various hard work finally got four or five 
men to sign it, and I filed the petition in the Henry county 
Circuit Court and the court appointed commissioners, and 
we started in to dig the first ditch that was ever dug in 
Henry county with a dredging machine. After the ditch 



With the Beef Teust 111 

commissioners had made their assessments, pretty nearly 
every farmer and land owner along the line of the ditch re- 
monstrated against the improvement, and we lawed the 
matter through the courts for a year or more, but finally 
the drain was established and the matter referred to the 
ditch commissioners for execution and completion of the 
drain according to the plans of the engineer. I then wrote 
to Mr. Stock at Toledo. Ohio, and had him come to New 
Castle and look over the plans and specifications of the 
ditch, and he came and staid three or four days, and 
was the successful bidder and started in with his dredging 
machine in due time, and after two and one-half years the 
ditch was completed. 

This was one of the hardest struggles of my lifetime for 
public improvement, and after it w^as over the court al- 
lowed me $750 for attorneys' fees, but there never was 
any improvement made in Henry county equal to that. 
Today this is the most valuable and productive land in 
Henry county, a great majority of which needs no tile or 
lateral drains. The farmers had dug a great many lateral 
drains and put in tiling, but after the dredging machine 
passed through and dug the ditch, the tile drains mostly 
went dry and the water level settled until they were no 
longer of any use or necessity. This land raises corn every 
year of the best quality, and a very large yield to the acre. 
A great many people got furiously mad at me, and several 
of them would not speak to me after the drain had been 
established and after it had reclaimed many acres of worth- 
less land on their farms. 

No man or citizen in Henry county has ever been able 
to calculate or estimate the value of this one improvement 



112 Twenty Yeaes iisr Hell 

to that grand old county in Indiana that has been one of 
the foremost agricultural counties in the State of Indiana. 
This drain brought lands into cultivation and enhanced 
their value from $10 an acre to $100 per acre or more at 
a very moderate cost to the land owners. It drained a dis- 
mal swamp of thousands of acres of worthless, disease-pro- 
ducing territory into a perpetual valley of rich, fertile 
black lands that can never be worn out, and it is to that one 
thing, the digging of this drain, more than any other, that 
has brought Henry county prominently to the front as one 
of the great corn-producing counties of Indiana and prob- 
ably the third or fourth hog-producing county of the grand 
old Hoosier State. It has brought hundreds of thousands 
of dollars in return and paid many times over and over 
what it cost the farmers for the original expenditure in 
draining this land, and has done more than any one thing 
to add to Henry county's fame and pride of being the home 
of the wild flower and the honey bee. 

Yours very truly, 

Charles S. Hernly. 



Mr. Shiel 's Second Letter to the Com- 
mission. 

Commission on Country Life, Washington, B. 0. : 

My Dear Sirs — Some time in January I caused to be 
mailed you copies of a brief in reply to your inquiry which 
came to me about the 10th of December, as to Ohio, Indi- 
ana and Illinois. At the time I received your letter I had 
made arrangements to leave home to visit South America 
and Cuba about the 10th or 15th of December, and I only 
had four or five days to dictate the brief, which my man- 
ager had printed. When I arrived at Washington on my 
return in February, I saw that there were some errors as 
to dates and places and some misprints in it, and I feel it 
due you, myself and the readers that it should be repub- 
lished — I have had it proofed correctly. I feel also that it 
is necessary to furnish you further data on this line at this 
time when there is so much agitation regarding the tariff 
bill, and certainly there is no one more interested in this 
tariff bill, in which the whole country is concerned, than 
the farmer. 

I will now take up what is well known as the Meat 
Trusts.- There are at least ten of them, and I will take 
them up in turn and deal with each as I come to it. 

The greatest Trust in the known world is the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad Company, which has been largely operated 
by one Samuel Allerton, of Chicago, Illinois. I have per- 
sonally known him for at least forty-one or two years, and 
he is the ' ' High Priest, ' ' leading all combinations and 

[8] (113^ 



114 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

organizing more of them than any other one man. The 
Pennsylvania Railroad is what might be called a large 
Department Store. They own and operate practically 
everything and everybody on the lines of their roads. 

The next great Trust to that is the Hollis Hides, Tallow, 
Dressed Lambs and Sheep Company, of Boston. I will 
name them in routine as I knew them and operated with 
them. The third, Nelson Morris & Co., Chicago; fourth, 
Swift & Co., Chicago; fifth, Hammond & Co., Chicago; 
sixth, Kingan & Co., Indianapolis, and St. Clair & Co., 
Cedar Rapids, Iowa; seventh, Armour & Co., Chicago; 
eighth, Cudahy & Co., Milwaukee, and ninth, the National 
Packing Co., Chicago. 

FIRST, THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY. 

The Pennsylvania Railway Company own and operate 
practically all the cars they use on their lines. They own 
and operate practically all the stock yards on the lines of 
their roads, which are the greatest thieves in the known 
world. They also own all of the packing houses on their 
lines with the exception of two at Dayton, Ohio. The pack- 
ing houses they don't own or control are: Ray & Co. 
and Dunlevy Bros., Pittsburg, Pa.; Wm. Zollers & Co., 
Allegheny, Pa.; Seltzer Bros., and Jacob Ullmer & Co.; 
Pottsville, Pa. ; Stowers Packing Co, Scranton, Pa. ; J. J. 
Felan & Son, (xermantown, Pa. ; Pennsylvania Packing Co., 
Philadelphia, Pa.; Hart Bros., Wilmington, Del.; C. Hoh- 
man, and his eight sons. Company, Baltimore, Md. ; F. 
Schenk, and six sons. Company, Wheeling, W. Va. They 
educate the employes in their own stock yards to practice 
fraud on everyone who does not succumb to their dictation. 



With the Beef Tkust 115 

They buy practically all the cattle on the line of their roads 
that are fit to be exported. They export all the cattle in 
their own ships to practically all parts of Great Britain; 
Sam Allerton being the "King Bee" and making all the 
rates on his road, paying all the rebates, adjusting and set- 
tling all claims, etc. He first commenced in Chicago during 
or before the war running a packing house. He employed 
one George B. Wilson, then a boy, just my age, who soon 
grew up to be his bookkeeper. Sometime about thirty-three 
to thirty-five years ago he organized a firm that was then 
known as Allerton & Wilson for the purpose of slaughtering 
hogs in Jersey City in one of his stock yards, to sell to the 
cutters in and about Jersey City and New York. In a short 
time afterwards he organized what was known at that time 
as a combination, taking into this combination practically 
all the slaughterers doing business in New York: Brain- 
ard Bros., doing business in Jersey City, Philadelphia 
and Pittsburg (there w T ere three brothers) ; Monroe Crane, 
West street; C. H. Davis & Co., J. Love & Co., West foot 
Thirty-ninth street; Tilden & Co., of Chicago; W. 0. 
Stalnacker, later Stalnacker & Son (the son, Will Stal- 
nacker, was at one time mayor of Yonkers and a member 
of Congress for a number of terms, and well known in New 
York) ; Spring & Haynes, foot West Fortieth street; G. V. 
Bartlett & Co., one time in New York, but later in Jersey 
City. I could name a number of other smaller ones who 
had to enter into the combination in order to do any busi- 
ness in New York and have their stock delivered on time. 
This combination, however, had parties connected with the 
New York Central, operated at that time by Mr. Butcher, 
who w r as and is stock agent, who occupied the same place 



116 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

with the New York Central that Allerton did on the Penn- 
sylvania, However, the New York Central did not follow 
it up in the same way that Allerton did, as they never went 
into the exporting of live stock, or into the slaughtering 
as a business, as a company, but they did own, control and 
manipulate New York Central stock yards at the West foot 
of Sixtieth street; Albany, N. Y., stock yards, which were 
very large, and the Buffalo stock yards, all of which were 
on the line of their road, and no one could unload or feed 
a car of stock on their road east of Buffalo except in their 
yards. 

I commenced selling Allerton & Wilson largely when 
they began business in New York. This was before we built 
the stock yards in Indianapolis. At that time the two rail- 
roads were handing out rebates to large shippers of from 
$15 to $25 per car, according to the distance shipped, when 
they had a train load. Allerton and Dutcher were the men 
who were handing out the money, and if I could make my 
rebates on my heavy shipments I had a good profit. After 
we built the yards at Indianapolis I commenced buying on 
commission, charging $6 a double deck for buying hogs and 
$10 for cattle and sheep, with the exception of those pur- 
chased for customers in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Wash- 
ington. They required a closer sort, and I got $8 and $10 
from W. E. Clark in Washington; E. G. Rheinthaler & 
Co., Philadelphia; Jacob C. Schaffer, Baltimore; W. P. 
Harvey & Co. and Charles G. Kreil, Baltimore, and a num- 
ber of others. The New York people kicked on my com- 
mission, but they soon paid it without a murmur. Allerton 
& Wilson became very large customers of mine, possibly the 
largest I had in New York, as Wilson ordered me to buy 



With the Beef Teust 117 

up to 15 cars a day, when I saw they were worth the 
money. Wilson and I became very close friends. I never 
had a better one, and he never had a better friend than I 
was. He was the brightest accountant and the best book- 
keeper I ever knew, the earliest man up and the last one 
to bed in New York or Jersey City. This he continued up 
to the time of his death, some few months ago. He in- 
variably told me how they were doing, and the different 
rebates that the "High Priest," Allerton, was giving the 
different shippers. Of course, Allerton and Wilson were 
practically the Pennsylvania Railroad for a time. Some 
twenty-three to twenty-five years ago Allerton drew out of 
the firm, and the firm has been known since as George B. 
Wilson & Co., and are still the largest operators in the Penn- 
sylvania stock yards in Jersey City, and the largest slaugh- 
terers for New York, Jersey City, Newark, Brooklyn and 
the neighboring trade. At this time United States Senator 
McPherson, of New Jersey, was one of the very largest 
operators in the Pennsylvania yards on the Jersey side. 
Then at that time, thirty years ago, John Taylor, of Tren- 
ton, N. J., was a very large operator. He had a good pack- 
ing house and a stock yard where he sold dressed hogs off 
the hooks to the immediate towns, and finally got to ship- 
ping to towns on the lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
even into Newark and Jersey City. He showed strong com- 
petition to the Pennsylvania road and the New York Ex- 
change, and they soon set about to put him out of busi- 
ness. He was at that time a very rich man and had served 
a number of terms in the State Senate, and was one of 
the very ablest men there was on the Republican side of the 
Senate. I frequently met him as a delegate to Republican 



118 • Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

National conventions. John and I often talked about it, he 
contending that they would not be able to break him, but 
they finally got him not only broke in financial matters, but 
the great good man died a poor man under the pressure. 
They have practically wiped out or absorbed every packing 
house on the line of their roads, with the exception of some 
few small operators out in the anthracite coal regions and 
the Pennsylvania Packing Company, which was owned by 
E. G. Rheinthaller & Co., Philadelphia, Rheinthaller is 
one of the wealthy men of Philadelphia, president of a big 
trust company, and having a local trade sufficient to keep 
up his plant. He was one time treasurer of Philadelphia, 

In Pittsburg they absorbed and took in what is now 
known as the Pittsburg Packing and Provision Company. 
This they did at the time they bought what was known 
as the Huz Island stock yards, owned and operated by the 
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, and moved the East 
Liberty stock yards, which was their big yard, and consoli- 
dated the two. Allerton 's man Friday, Simon O'Donell, 
who was known in the trade in Chicago, Pittsburg, Phila- 
delphia and New York as the "King of Ireland,' ' was the 
promoter of this consolidation. Some twenty-five or thirty 
years ago he was working in the slaughter house of Aller- 
ton & Wilson, then he got to be feed boss and working for 
Allerton in the stock yards in Jersey City, where he learned 
to feed short rations. At the time of the separation of 
Allerton & Wilson, Wilson drove O'Donell out of his office 
with a gun, calling him a thief. Allerton took him up, and 
he has been the man who has done practically all the dirty 
work for the Pennsylvania road since that time. He pays 
all the rebates. In recent years he has always been looking 
for a man that has bis hand behind his back. 



With the Beef Tkust 119 

After the passage of the Elkins anti-rebate law and the 
Sherman anti-trust law, Allerton became afraid of having 
to go to the penitentiary if he continued handing out re- 
bates. I told Allerton that it was a violation of the Elkins 
law to ride on a pass, and that I would take no more of 
his passes, nor could I permit anybody to give me in any 
way any rebate. Allerton took a tip, I think, from this, and 
employed this Irishmen, who was known as a Turk. There 
is an Irishman and a Jew, or a Jew and an Irishman, in 
everything that is corrupt in practically every country in 
the world. There is no man who thinks more of and has a 
higher regard for a Jewish woman or an Irish woman than 
I have. No women of any nationality rear better Roosevelt 
families than the Irish and Jewish women. Some of the 
greatest and best men and some of the fairest dealers I 
have met in my business career have been Jews, and some 
of the best men have been Irish, but when you find a Jew 
or an Irishman without any conscience, a burglar is a gen- 
tleman beside him. A burglar, may be hungry, poor and 
forced to steal, but when he goes to burglarize he takes his 
life in his hands, and when cornered will kill. I have had 
two of them in my house, but as I desired no controversy 
with them, told them to. take what they had to have and 
get out, and leave me and my family to our slumbers. But 
a Jew and an Irishman without a conscience, and who are 
robbing everybody in every way, are always cowards. So 
I shall deal now with Allerton 's man Friday, the King of 
Ireland, who is an Irishman without a conscience, and not 
much brains. Allerton called him to Chicago some twenty- 
five years ago, putting him in the commission business for 
the purpose of buying stock to go on slop feed on his (Aller- 



120 Twenty Years in Hell 

ton's) farms in Piatt, Vermilion (Joe Cannon's county) 
and other counties in Illinois, from 16,000 to 20,000 
acres of the best land in Illinois, worth from $140 to $200 
an acre. This was probably Allerton 's own private enter- 
prise, but the Pennsylvania Railroad had O 'Donell buy all 
their cattle for export, and buy hogs for slaughter, or buy 
for any business they had on the lines of their road. 
O 'Donell soon got into the business for himself under the 
name of Simon O 'Donell, and the King became a big com- 
mission man, practically doing business only for Allerton 
and the Pennsylvania Railroad, unknown at the time to the 
trade. He soon got into politics, unknown to politicians — 
except as a Democratic heeler in Jersey City. He soon 
came to be Allerton 's political boss and a Republican. I 
was at a meeting at the Auditorium some eighteen or twenty 
years ago, when Allerton was a candidate for mayor of Chi- 
cago. I went to the meeting to hear Allerton make a speech. 
It was a time when I did a little politics on the side. I 
found O 'Donell bossing the job and being the whole thing, 
at the meeting, doing the ushering. I felt interested in the 
election at the time. I called on O 'Donell the next day at 
Allerton 's headquarters. He was then handing out the 
stuff, bossing the whole job. It was said that Allerton spent 
from a quarter to a half a million dollars trying to get 
elected, but he was badly beaten. 

The Pennsylvania Railroad and the Beef Trust, about 
twenty years ago, determined they would have to get rid 
of me, as I was burning the candle at both ends. I was 
buying high grade stock at high grade prices for the little 
butchers — there were hundreds of them — and I never had a 
man to say I paid too much for stock when I got the kind 



With the Beef Trust 121 

he wanted. The butchers were selling their high grade 
direct to the trade. The Beef Trust was buying low grade 
for the United States and sending all their high grade 
abroad, so they organized to get rid of me at any cost. They 
went so far as to put the Vandalia Railroad in the hands of 
a receiver, a man known as V. T. Malott, president of the 
Indiana National Bank of .Indianapolis, Indiana. I was 
banking with Malott, doing from two to four million dol- 
lars business a year. Before this time they had organized 
a live stock exchange at Indianapolis, and at this exchange 
they made rules. It soon became a national exchange. I 
was buying stock at 6 o'clock in the morning under the 
rules which applied to all other markets when we opened 
the yards in Indianapolis thirty-two years ago. Bob Me- 
Kee, afterwards the son-in-law of President Harrison and 
"Baby" McKee's father, was weigh-master some two years 
then, thirty-two years ago. Joseph T. Fanning, Belmont's 
private secretary, who occupies three elegant rooms at the 
Waldorf-Astoria, in New York, was shipping clerk for the 
yards, and shipped out trains almost every day for me. 
They finally got the organization up to a point that, ten 
years ago, they passed a resolution not to sell to me. Dur- 
ing this time they changed the time for opening the mar- 
ket to 8 o'clock — they first made it 7, then 8, while the 6 
o'clock rule prevailed at all the other markets. I had a 
wire direct into Boston, New York and all the Eastern mar- 
kets. The exchange waited to get a telegram from every 
market before they would sell anything, and in that way I 
would not be able to wire the Bast what the market was in 
Indianapolis. So my customers in the East told me to buy 
anything and everything first-class quality, and to send 



122 Twenty Years in Hell 

along anything I could get if it was worth the money, and 
during six months in the year I bought seventy to eighty 
per cent, of all the good hogs and ninety per cent, of all the 
good cattle on their instructions to use my own judgment. 

Then the stock yards company and commission exchange 
met with the bosses and passed a resolution that I could not 
weigh all the stock I bought on the scales I designated them 
to be weighed on, and if I would not consent to weigh on 
scales selected by them, they would do no more business 
with me. To this I could not and would not consent, as I 
would be robbed at every turn, and they passed a resolu- 
tion not to do any more business with me. They had two 
pair of scales adjusted, one to weigh light in when they were 
the buyers, and the other heavy out when they were the sell- 
ers; this was done to suit the commission men. I kicked 
on the matter, and they met and passed a resolution to do 
no more business with me unless I submitted to their scales, 
and I never have done a dollar's worth of business since 
with any of the members of that exchange, except with 
those who later left and went over to the new yard with me. 

Every year since they put me out of the new yard I 
have had frequent talks with John M. Shaw, general man- 
ager of Kingan & Co., H. C. Graybill, traffic manager of 
the stock yards, and Del Benson, who has been most of the 
time since president of the stock yards exchange, about get- 
ting back and doing business in the yards. These men were 
the manipulators of the yards. The real man, however, 
was T. Smith Graves, who was president of the exchange 
at the time all this trouble was going on, and has since been 
president of the national exchange, and who was the great- 
est actor I ever knew. Shaw, Graybille and Benson were all 



With the Beef Trust 123 

friendly to me, but had to obey the orders of their corpora- 
tion. Graves was one of those men known to all first-class 
business men as one who would rather make dollars than 
reputation for his corporation. I will treat Graves 
in the light that the majority knew him in the Indianapolis 
stock yards since the time he came there, when telling the 
facts in regard to Kingan & Co., which will be number 
six. 

I appealed to the country through the newspapers, pay- 
ing for my appeal by the line, at an expense of many thou- 
sands of dollars, to send me their stock on consignment, tell- 
ing them I would take care of them at one-fourth the com- 
mission charged by the exchange. In less than three months 
one-third of them had taken their hogs away from the com- 
mission men, who were getting enormous commissions for 
selling the stock, more than double what was charged when 
the Indianapolis stock yards opened thirty-two years ago, 
and consigned it to me. The old feeders, who were still in the 
business of stock raising, knew me and had confidence that 
I would deal fairly by them. Many of the young men en- 
gaged in the business had been taught by their fathers who 
had known me, this same confidence ; many of these young 
men have the farms their fathers had left them. All the 
men shipping hogs to me were able to bank themselves in 
their own locality, and with no ropes about their necks. I 
would not weigh on any scales but those I knew would give 
good and honest weight. 

It ran along three or four months, and I had the stock 
yard manipulators sufficiently beaten, notwithstanding the 
yard company was robbing me at the East end by swapping 
my hogs where I loaded them out, and buying up some of 



124 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

the men I had looking after that part of the business. Some 
of them had been working for me a long time. Then I had 
John P. Squire & Co. as a customer, who had their own 
private cars, who were taking a large output, some days as 
high as thirty to fifty double deck cars. When I got them 
in their care they were safe, as thieves could not get hold of 
them. The fact is I could have used four hundred cars a 
day with the customers I had in the East. 

I organized to build a new stock yards, believing that I 
could get away from the established stock yards and own 
control of one myself — that is Squire and I — and a sup- 
posed friend by the name of Irwin. We organized for 
$300,000. I took $100,000 and Irwin $100,000, and Squire 
$100,000, and I knew beyond a doubt that Squire would 
stay with me until the last ditch, and felt that I had gotten 
control of the yards. Allerton and Rauh, a fertilizer Jew, 
who was president at that time of the yards that I caused 
to be constructed in 1877, were trying to get rid of me, and 
they sent for O 'Donell to come from Chicago, as the Penn- 
sylvania railroad was a big holder in the Indianapolis stock 
yards. Allerton knew that I was taking all the good stuff 
away from them. O'Donell came down and proposed to 
go into partnership. I said I could not let anybody in — 
we had all the men in we wanted. The next week he came 
back again and said : ' ' Rhody , I want to get in, I want to 
help you do up that Jew. ' ' He said : ' ' That Jew must be 
done up, let us in and we will take all your cattle. " Mr. 
Allerton sent him down to tell me this, and that the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad stood back of them. 

He went out and had a talk with Irwin, and the next 
morning he came to my office from Rauh's office, got on his 



With the Beef Tkust 125 

knees, pulled a cross and made a prayer, and said : "Rhody, 
for God sake let me in, I want to help blow up that Jew. ' ' 
I said ' ' No, ' ' but in a few days he had prevailed on Irwin 
and took it up with Squire, showing what they were going 
to do about taking the cattle. I consented to make the stock 
$500,000; Allerton to take $100,000, Irwin $100,000, Squire 
$100,000, I $100,000 and $100,000 to stay in the treasury, 
and I still felt that I had control, as I was. tied with Irwin 
in a contract so he could not sell his stock without mine 
going also. 

We went on and commenced the construction. I was 
skeptical about the Irishman and the Jew all the time, but I 
could not make Irwin believe it. Rauh and Allerton were 
partners at the time and in less than six months Rauh had 
Irwin a partner, too. We commenced and did a huge busi- 
ness, having had to go into the United States court, employ 
a lawyer, who won the case — charged $5,000 — to get our 
stock unloaded on the Belt Road side tracks. Judge Baker 
rendered a decision in our favor. Then we did a heavy 
business, especially in hogs. We commenced in September, 
1899, and by December we were doing an immense busi- 
ness in hogs, but had not done much with cattle. The Mor- 
gan Brothers, whom I mentioned in this brief, had between 
1,500 and 3,000 of the best cattle in Indiana on feed about 
seventy miles south of here on the Pennsylvania Railroad. 
About the time the yards were to be opened I went down to 
see the Morgans, as I had been buying their cattle for forty 
years; arranged to handle all their cattle direct at half- 
yardage and about half commission, and the cattle should 
go direct to Allerton, New York, as bought by O 'Donell. 

After we had been ,open some little time the Morgans 



126 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

were to make the first shipment. I think it was ten or 
twelve cars they sent up, or rather John Morgan came up 
with them. I took O'Donell and sold them to him myself, 
and at a fair price seemingly, yet it wasn't the price the 
cattle would have brought in an open market. The next 
week O'Donell said he did not have any vessels and stood 
me off — he did not want to take any and yet Morgan 
wanted to get rid of some of the cattle. I called O'Donell 
over the phone at Chicago then, and said we must take some 
notice of Morgan's cattle. He said they would use ten or 
twelve car loads on the next boat; to order the cattle up. 
Morgan came up with the cattle. O'Donell turns up at 
eight or nine o'clock in the day and says to me that they 
could not buy any cattle, better send them on to Chicago. 
I called him in my private office and locked the door, pulled 
my gun and threw it right in his face and said: "I am 
going to kill you right here — Wilson ought to have killed 
you, but I am going to do it right here. You cannot do 
this to me. ' ' He threw up both hands — I made him throw 
them up — and commenced getting white. He said : "Rhody, 
don't kill me, don't kill me — you don't want me to lose my 
place. Morgan's cattle," he said, "were marked to go to 
Chicago to be divided, and they have got to go there. 
Allerton said if' I buy any more cattle he would have to 
discharge me and Morgan's cattle belong in the Chicago 
territory to be divided there. ' ' 

After he got down on his knees and prayed awhile I let 
him go. I have never spoken to him since. I am a very 
superstitious man — he has had all kinds of trouble, and if 
he has qo1 been in hell with the trouble he has had, he has 
no conscience. 



With the Beef Tkust 127 

Malott, my banker, at this time, or McKee, his vice-presi- 
dent, an uncle of "Baby" McKee, called me to the bank and 
said: "You owe $10,000 here, and as you are having a 
good deal of trouble here we want our money." I said: 
"Why, I don't owe you a cent. I only borrowed $10,000 
about a week ago on a ninety-day paper. ' ' He said : i ' Oh, 
yes you do." I said: "Well, then, come over to my law- 
yer's," and we went across the street to Ed Daniels, now 
master in chancery, and has been a partner of Ferd Win- 
ters, who was successor to Harrison. My attorney went to 
see him and they both said I need not pay till it was 
due. I knew that. I said: "If your bank is going to 
fail I will go and get the money, otherwise I will pay it 
when it is due." When it was due I paid it. Later on 
Malott protested a check that was issued in Illinois, a thing 
that was never done to me before, and he knew I was sick 
in bed at home ; I got it in the day between the time others 
got their money and I made my deposit. I was always late 
in depositing. I had been overchecked perhaps thirty or 
fifty thousand dollars between deposits and had been over- 
checked in other banks probably as much as sixty or sev- 
enty-five thousand dollars. He threw the $1,200 check out, 
and I got notice by postal of an overcheck of $2.68. That 
was the amount that I was short to meet the $1,200 check. 
This was the first time in my business career I ever received 
a notice of an overcheck. This was all done to embarrass 
me. They went after my credit, a thing that had never been 
questioned from the day I first commenced business. How- 
ever, I will finish this point later, and I will take up the 
King of Ireland, Eauh, the fertilizer Jew, and Malott, the 
Indianapolis banker, when I am touching on Kingan & Co. 



128 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

in number six. The fact is, I will have to touch the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad in practically all of them, and when I 
am touching the Pennsylvania Railroad I will be touching 
Malott. 

Note, several times I had fine steers taken out of a car 
load passing through Pittsburg and bulls and Jerseys put 
in their places, and three hundred pound hogs taken out and 
pigs put in their places, just as Dutcher had permitted. 
Dutcher is a gentleman beside Allerton and 'Donell. The 
fact is, Dutcher has always been a clever man, and when I 
would call Dutcher down on a thing he would say it would 
not happen again, and would always put it on to the com- 
mission man in the yard, which was no doubt true, but 
Wilson warned me to watch the Turk, for at Pittsburg the 
King of Ireland would cut out a big one and put in a little 
one himself — he was educated that way, so Wilson told me. 
That was his long suit when a boy. 

The greatest tearer down known in this country, and 
perhaps to the world, is the Pennsylvania Railroad. They 
tore down all the small roads in Indiana. The first road 
they tore down in this State was the J. M. & I., running 
from Indianapolis to Madison and Jeffersonville. They 
tore down the Indianapolis & Vincennes, a road running 
one hundred miles through a fertile country. They tore 
down the Vandalia line, running from Terre Haute to 
South Bend. All these roads had been built by subscrip- 
tions and by assessments on the people along the lines of 
the roads. They first broke down the value of the stock in 
the markds until the roads were forced into the hands of 
receivers, and then when sold on mortgage bought them in 
For practically nothing. Those roads had to have an outlet to 



With the Beef Tkust 129 

New York and the East, and the Pennsylvania was the only 
road running East they could connect with, and hence they 
fell an easy prey to that giant corporation. Products to 
foreign countries had to go over the Pennsylvania road. 
And when the other roads went into the receiver's hands, 
and the Pennsylvania got control of the stock, they soon 
pushed the stock up to where it paid from 99 to par, and 
they watered that. I can cite other points similar in other 
States, but I am only calling attention to that coming under 
my own observation. Of recent years they have constructed 
some roads in Pennsylvania and the coal regions — they 
found they had to, as all other roads were getting in there, 
such as the Reading, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, 
the Lehigh Valley and the Baltimore & Ohio. Their terri- 
tories are in the iron and coal region. They have com- 
menced constructing some and no doubt will construct many 
others. Their management at this time is good ; in fact, it 
has always been good after they got control, but before 
they got control of the Vandalia road north to South Bend 
you could not get any service on it at all or through In- 
dianapolis to Vincennes. I operated practically all along 
the lines of these two roads, and took a large per cent, of 
the live stock I bought over their roads. It would take 
twenty-four hours to come from Vincennes to Indianapolis 
before the Pennsylvania got full control, while now the dis- 
tance is covered in about eight or ten hours. While they 
were tearing down they always managed not to connect at 
Indianapolis for the East. They wanted to embarrass 
everybody connected with the buying of live stock and force 
them to unload and feed in the Indianapolis yards, in which 
they were heavy stockholders. They are past masters in 

[9] 



130 Twenty Years in Hell 

tearing down a road. Now this same thing applies to some 
other trunk lines, but not to. Hill or to Harriman. There 
is a vast difference between them. 

Let me cite one instance of the sharp practices of Chief 
Priest Allerton and his man Friday, the King of Ireland. 
Some eight years ago they got up a scheme to work the 
butchers in New York, Jersey City, Philadelphia. Baltimore 
and Washington, and in fact all the butchers in the East 
on the line of their road who were accustomed to buying 
their cattle by the carload. The scheme was to get up a 
big fat stock show at the Pittsburg East Liberty stock yards, 
which were owned by the Pennsylvania Company. Some 
three months before they began advertising, the show the 
Turk went out and bought the very best cattle from the 
feeders *in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and I 
think they got a few carloads from Missouri. 

At that time the best cattle on the market was selling 
from five to five and a half cents: possibly the Pinnell 
land might have brought six cents. The Turk had the 
feeder ship the cattle in his own name, but the cattle really 
belonged to the Pennsylvania road. The road gave the 
shippers a free pass and paid their hotel bills at the 
Shenly, the big hotel in Pittsburg. They advertised the 
stock show very extensively all over the country. When 
the show opened they ran a free train of sleepers with big 
streamers on the cars, which were very attractive, and 
brought all the leading butchers from Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, District of Columbia, New Jersey and New York. 
They leased the hotel and paid all the bills. I was invited 
and went over. I was at that time operating a new stock 
yards at Indianapolis. I refused to take a pass but stopped 



With the Beef Trust 131 

at their hotel to see what was going on, paying my own 
bills. I went to the show. They had a hundred cars or 
more of cattle on exhibition. A few stragglers and farm- 
ers got in with some good cattle which the Pennsylvania 
Railroad did not own. 

The market opened up. I had a seat by the side of 
Richard Webber and George Wilson. The first cattle put 
up was the Pinnell cattle. I think Pinnell had only five 
or six carloads in the string. At the start off I think Web- 
ber bid seven cents for the choice of the five or six loads of 
Pinnell cattle. The bidding advanced until the offer 
reached about eight cents. The managers knew that Web- 
ber would get the best load, so they put the Pittsburg Pack- 
ing and Provision Company, practically their own com- 
pany, in to do the driving. The bidding went on until the 
cattle, according to my recollection, brought nine cents. 
All the Pinnell cattle brought eight and a half to nine 
cents. Every butcher who went on the free train had to 
take home a load of the Pennsylvania Company's cattle. 
Webber said to me that he did not want to crowd the boys 
and he would only buy a few carloads. The Pittsburg 
Packing and Provision Company kept bidding, but not 
buying, as long as the Pennsylvania Company's cattle 
lasted. Later when they got to selling the cattle of the 
stragglers and farmers, who had good cattle, in fact, many 
of them as good as most of the Pennsylvania Company's 
cattle, except the Pinnell, then the Pittsburg Packing and 
Provision House dropped out of the bidding, and the cat- 
tle went at from five and a half to six and a half cents. 
Thus the fellows who waited got their cattle worth the 
money. 



132 Twenty Yeaks w Hell 

Wilson was there and said to me that it was the greatest 
theft he ever saw ; that they ought to be sent to the peni- 
tentiary; that the Turk had not paid him any rebate for 
six months and had been lying to him; that he was going 
to see Allerton, who had made a big speech at the banquet, 
and that he would be damned if he did not kill him and the 
Turk both if they did not settle; that they could not work" 
him. Wilson and I sat together at the banquet, and he 
followed Allerton out. I saw Wilson after his talk with the 
High Priest and he told me that Allerton had promised to 
send him a cheek for his rebates, This stopped the killing. 

SECOND — N. E. HOLLIS & CO., EAST CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 

When I first knew this company I think there were 
three, possibly four brothers, perhaps only one or two of 
them are living now. I have known them for about thirty- 
two years, when I first commenced buying hogs on commis- 
sion to go into New England. Prior to that time I was 
buying on my own account. I did very little business in 
New England, selling only at Albany to New England peo- 
ple, such as Squire, Charles North & Co., Niles Brothers, 
White, Peavy & Dexter and other slaughterers. A large 
dealer in cattle in New England was Billie Munroe, who is 
now dead. He came West, and was one of the largest buy- 
ers back in the sixties and seventies. Later on Sturtevant 
& Haley became very large cattle dealers. 

After I left the stock yards I turned all my export cat- 
tle into New York State, New York City, Philadelphia and 
Baltimore, yet there were a number of limes I sent entile 
to be loaded on the boats at Boston. 



With the Beef Trust 133 

Note the list of houses that are now operated by what 
is known as Swift & Co., of which the Hollis Company are 
the fathers. 

Distributing Houses of Swift & Co., New England: 

N. E. Hollis & Co., Boston. 
Skinner & Arnold, Boston. 
-Sturtevant & Haley, F. H. Market, Boston. 
Fletcher & Co., Boston. 

Sands & Furber, F. H. Market, Boston, vegetables. 
Arthur Lawrence & Co., Boston. 
Medford Street Market, Somerville. 
New England Produce Co., Boston. 
E. H. Moulton, Haverhill. 
Swing & Co., LawTence. 
Swift & Bailey, Lowell. 
Low r ell Provision Co., Lowell. 
Nashua Beef Co., Nashua, N. H. 
Manchester Provision Co., Manchester, N. H. 
Concord Beef Co., Concord, N. H. 
St. Albans Beef Co., St. Albans, Vt. 
Burlington Beef Co., Burlington, Vt. 
Portland Beef Co., Portland, Me. 
Bath Beef Co., Bath, Me. 
Lewiston Beef Co., Lewiston, Me. 
Augusta Beef Co., Augusta, Me. 
Gardner Beef Co., Gardner, Me. 
Waterville Beef Co., Waterville, Me. 
H. L. Handy Co., Springfield, Mass. 
Geo. Nye Co., Springfield, Mass. 
Meriden Provision Co., Meriden, Ct. 



134 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

Strong, Barnes & Hart, New Haven. - 
Bridgeport (2 houses), Bridgeport, Conn. 
New Britain (1 house), New Britain, Conn. 
And many other towns and cities with whose names, be- 
sides those going under the name of Swift & Co., Swift 
Beef Co., G. F. & E. C. Swift, their houses are connected. 

Many names of houses have been changed to Swift 
& Co., and Swift Beef Co., Swift Provision Co., in all these 
places and numbers of others not mentioned. 

While Armour, Morris & Co. (National Packing Co., 
Swift) , Cudahy, have these distributing houses also, they do 
no slaughtering and work in unison with the Swifts on 
prices, so that one price made in Chicago controls all New 
England, practically a Beef Trust in everything but name. 

Swift Slaughtering & Packing Houses, in New England. 

— North Packing & Provision Co., Somerville, hogs. 
John P. Squire & Co., E. Cambridge, hogs. 
Sturtevant & Haley Co., E. Cambridge, beef. 

- New England Dressed Meat and Wool Co., Somerville, 

beef and sheep. 
Niles Bros, (dismantled), Belmont, hogs. 
Control of Butchers' Slaughtering and Rend. Co., 
Brighton, beef, hogs, sheep and calves. 
-White, Peavy & Dexter Co., Worcester, hogs. 
■^ Springfield Provision Co., Springfield, hogs. 

Meriden Provision Co. (dismantled), Meriden, Conn., 

hogs; 
Merwin Provision Co. (dismantled), now soap works, 
New Haven, Conn., hogs. 
— Sperry & Barnes, New Haven, Conn., hogs. 



With the Beef Trust 135 

G. H. Davis, Norwich, Conn., hogs. 
I. B. Mason & Son (dismantled), Providence, R. I., 
hogs. < ^ 

Comstock & Co., supposed to be Swift, but no proof 
of it, work with them; besides owning and operating the 
foregoing slaughtering houses, they have driven the whole- 
sale distributing houses in the large cities to cover, and 
where there are 5,000 inhabitants they have a beef house or 
provision distributing plant, which not only sells beef, but 
also hog products, sheep, calves, poultry, butter and eggs. 

They had the money and they put in business a man 
who was known back in the '70s as Parson Swift : and who 
was the Swift who ran the Methodist church at the Chi- 
cago stock yards. He commenced about 72 to '74. He is 
the father of the Swift boys. I do not know any of the 
boys personally, as I have never had any business with the 
Swifts in Chicago, but I did know intimately and personally 
E. C. Swift, who was really the only Swift so far as finan- 
ciering is concerned, from the start to the finish, and who 
was two years younger than the Parson, and the Hollis Com- 
pany financed him to start out. At this very time when 
they bought the Squires' stock at 14-cents on the dollar they 
reorganized the company with a capital stock of $5,000,000, 
under the law of New Jersey, when the plant really cost 
them only about $1,000,000 ; and they reissued, I think, ten 
or fifteen millions of bonds and stock to pay this one mil- 
lion dollars. One of the Hollis 's and I think two of them, 
told me how they were doing it. Also E. C. Swift at two 
different times when I was in his private office said: "Do 
you see those twenty-five or thirty clerks ? They are trans- 
ferring the Squires stock into the Swift stock. This is mak- 



136 Twenty Years in Hell 

ing money pretty fast and pretty easy. The public will buy 
it at par." 

The receivers employed me, and paid me a big salary to 
operate their thousand cars and buy from the farms to 
the packing house. The fact is, I was called to Boston — 
had a conference with the directors in charge of the reor- 
ganization at the time the Squires were taken out of the 
receivers hands. I told them what I could do in the way 
of furnishing hogs loaded in their cars in Ohio, Indiana, 
Kentucky, Illinois and Iowa. I made arrangements with 
them to open an office in Indianapolis at the board of trade. 
(This was at the time I was put out of my own stock yards 
at Indianapolis.) I fitted up an office of four rooms, em- 
ployed my telegraph operators and operated both wires, 
also operated both phones, and I bought all of the 
Squires' hogs for something like a year and a half or two 
years — something like one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
dred and fifty double deck cars a week, both in the market 
and on the farms to the packing house, going direct 

Note : The man whom I have said manipulated Squire's 
bouse while it was in the receiver's hands and after it was 
taken out was E. G. Whitford, a Yale College graduate 
and a very shrewd attorney. He apparently is the whole 
thing, or was the last time I was in Boston, of the Squire, 
North and Niles Brothers packing houses. 

Let me cite you the facts as to what called me to Bos- 
ton at this time. I was buying heavily along the line of 
the Mississippi River in Illinois. I had bought a load of 
hogs from C. L. Pietrie. He was a big feeder close to 
Burlington, Town, on the Illinois side. I know that Secre- 
tary Wilson must have known him. as he fed thousands 



With the Beef Trust 137 

of hogs and hundreds of cattle. Pie shipped generally a 
load or two at a time. He sent forward, my recollection is, 
one load of hogs that weighed about 350 pounds each. They 
run like eggs, and as I recollect there were fourteen or fif- 
teen of them condemned by the government — all fed on the 
same feed and all the same kind of hogs. I took the mat- 
ter up with Secretary Wilson and cited the fact of having 
eighteen hogs condemned in one or two loads that had been 
shipped from Pietrie. When the hogs were condemned 
they would make a barrel of lard out of them. They said 
it was tuberculosis they had. I had my man there looking 
after my business. When they would stick a knife into a 
big hog and if would show a blood shot, and when the in- 
spector would come down and see the blood he would con- 
demn the hog. Of course they may have stood in with the 
inspector. The sticker is the one that gave them the tuber- 
culosis. Then they would take the hog at a price to me of 
one and a half cents per pound. He would have to go in 
the tank for grease, so they said. Hogs at that time, as I 
recollect it, were selling at six cents per pound, and where 
they would cost me something like $25, after being con- 
demned they would get them for about $5. Of course it 
was of advantage to the houses to have them condemned. 
As I have said. I stated all of these facts to Secretary Wil- 
son. He came back at me and said that he would change 
the inspector. When a hog would only show a blood shot 
or tuberculosis in the neck they would have the head cut 
off and the other part would pass. 

When I received Secretary Wilson 's letter I went on to 
Boston, stayed around there a few days catching on and 
then pulled the letter on Whitford, and he said that was 



138 Twenty Years in Hell 

something that they could not get done, and I said : "You 
don't want it done. You have taken my hogs worth $25 
for $5." This was after he had taken me in an automobile 
over to Harvard College for lunch. He .wanted to order 
champagne, and did order it, but I told him that I could 
not drink champagne and that I never drank anything dur- 
ing business hours. This was at the same time that E. C. 
Swift and the Hollises were changing the Squires stock into 
the Swift stock. I found at the same time they were taking 
off 3% per cent, from wet to dry weight, a thing unknown 
when I sold hogs on dressed weight in Cincinnati and 
Louisville, where I had sold thousands of them thirty-five 
or forty years ago. On big hogs they would give me $1 to 
kill them and weigh them the next morning. They got all 
the gut fat and the hearts and livers. This same Squires 
house got the same on me and still took off 3y 2 per cent, 
from wet to dry weight. In Cincinnati the hogs would be 
killed in the evening and weighed off of the hooks in the 
morning. Most of the houses weighed their hogs wet and 
would take off l 1 /^ to 2 per cent, and some of them would 
take off 2y 2 per cent, in figuring the dry weight. They 
had been taking off 2% per cent, right along on me when 
I was selling dry meat, but I caught them at it when they 
started to take off 3y 2 per cent. I called Mr. Niles, who 
was president of the company, and Mr. Crocker, who was 
vice-president and treasurer, into their private office and 
said: "Here you are stealing; this is the worst kind of 
stealing. " Both of them threw up their hands and said 
they did not know it. I called in my man, Mr. Plummer, 
who had been Ni-les's bookkeeper in the old house, and he 
said that he had recently discovered it. I told them that 



With the Beef Tkust 139 

was the greatest theft that I ever knew. They threw both 
hands tip and said that Whitford did it. I was going to 
leave the next day. I took it up with Whitford. I had a 
meeting with Niles and Whitford in Young's Hotel. I had 
to go home that' day. After having a talk with them they 
both admitted to me that they had only done it for two or 
three months, and offered me $2,000 for it. I got very 
angry and talked very sharp to them. . Niles seemed wor- 
ried to death. I said, "$2,000, heli!" and left them. We 
had some correspondence about it and afterwards I sent my 
attorney over there to settle with them. It was at a time 
that I did not want to be bothered with any more lawsuits. 
He wired me that he could get $3,000, and I wired him that 
he had better settle and quit them. I never did any more 
business with them from that time on. This was the great- 
est theft I ever knew perpetrated on anyone, together with 
having the hogs stuck so they would show tuberculosis, es- 
pecially big ones, so that they could get them condemned. 
In the next book I will be able to show this more fully. 

They had their own cars, which were the first double deck 
private cars ever constructed for the purpose of shipping 
live hogs and sheep — some twenty-six or twenty-eight years 
ago. My recollection is the first cars were named Central 
Vermont. When these cars were constructed they were 
equipped with water troughs and arranged so that the hogs 
could be fed in the cars while in transit. All this was done 
by John P. Squire & Co., so the cars could be sealed at the 
shipping point, and the seal not broken until they reached 
the packing house, which prevented any swapping in the 
stock yards. My recollection is the company owned about 
twelve to fourteen hundred of them at the time of 



140 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

Squire's death. A few years later Charles North & 
Co., who were very strong competitors of the Squires, 
and Niles Bros., later the Boston Packing and Pro- 
vision Company (This is the house that is on my 
letter head and operated by the Swifts now as a 
fertilizer house, after being wrecked) ; I. B. Mason & Son, 
Providence; Comstock & Co., Providence; White, Peavy 
& Dexter, Worcester; S. E. Mervin & Sons, and Sperry & 
Barnes, of New Haven, saw that the Squires had made a 
new move to keep from going into the stock yards ; then 
they all went together and built, to my recollection, about 
one thousand to twelve hundred cars, calling them Western 
Livestock Express and St. Paul cars. They got mileage 
of from $14 to $16 from the railroads on a load of hogs 
from Chicago or Indianapolis, or other points, according to 
distance, and would make a trip every two weeks. Squires 
run his cars in train loads, about twenty-five to forty cars 
in a train, as he bought in Chicago daily one or two trains, 
and shipped over the Grand Trunk and Central Vermont 
from Chicago. He would make Boston from Chicago or 
Indianapolis in about three or four days, and the empty 
cars would come back, fifty to sixty cars in a train, they 
having right of way of everything except the fast passen- 
ger or express trains, in something like four or five days. 
They figured they could make about three trips with a car 
a month. The cost of construction of a car at the time when 
first built was something like .+500 to $550. This was very 
profitable and very soon ;i number of private parties 
reached out and wenl into the private car business, putting 
the water troughs in the double deckers. 

The New York slaughterers began to see that New Eng- 



With the Beef Trust 141 

land had them skinned to a frazzle by going through Buf- 
falo and other stock yards without being unloaded, and 
that the cars would come from the original shipping point 
to destination without the seal being broken. They saw 
there could not be any more stealing in the stock yards. 
My customers in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore 
commenced using some of Squire's cars at seasons when he 
was not using all of them. Squire would get the mileage and 
it was very profitable for them, but they used a great many 
of the St. Paul and Western Livestock Express cars. Soon 
the St. Paul car people, under the management of Henry 
L. Millis, came to Indianapolis, and solicited me to use their 
cars; said they would give me $5 a car if I would use 
them. He brought a letter from Ed Peavy, of the firm of 
White, Peavy & Dexter (the house for which I bought 
nearly everything they killed for nearly twenty years. I 
always bought for them white hogs when I could get them) 
who was a personal friend, saying that he was a large 
stockholder in the cars and that he had retired and sold out 
their packing house to Swift & Co., but did not sell the cars. 
I also received a letter from Mr. Mason, I think. I told 
Mr. Millis that I would like to please Mr. Peavy, also Mr. 
Mason, that they had both been my customers and many 
of the other car stockholders were at that time. He said 
the place I could help him most would be in New York, as 
he had more cars than there was demand for. In reply, I 
said to Mr. Millis, "Why, I never could take a rebate. I 
will give you the names of my customers and you can go 
down there and see what you can do. " I think this was be- 
fore the Sherman Anti-trust, or Elkins laws went into ef- 
fect. I gave him a list of my customers and he said he 



142 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

wanted some one to look after these cars and keep a record 
of them and report them. He asked me if I would not do it. 
I told him no, it would not be done by me in anyway, but 
that I would give him a man that would do it, and I fur- 
nished a man. The records were kept in my office by a man, 
in fact two of them worked at it, and had to make up the re- 
ports every day of how many cars went out and how many 
came in. I learned in New York shortly afterwards while 
there that Millis gave my customers quite a rebate, but I 
told them I did not want to know what they were doing in 
the rebate business. He soon got to pushing some of his 
cars on the Pennsylvania Road. First the Pennsylvania 
Road did not want to take them ; they had no cars with seals 
and none with water troughs in them. They insisted all the 
stock brought over their road would have to be unloaded 
at Pittsburg for feed. At first they only let Millis ' cars gp 
as far as Pittsburg and there put the stock in their own 
cars to go to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washing- 
ton and Richmond, as they did not want to pay mileage on 
any cars, but wanted the mileage for their own cars. I 
think possibly later they unloaded and reloaded them in 
the same cars, then the Turk would have a whack at them 
while in the pen, getting a big one out, and a little one in. 

About this time the Pennsylvania Railroad changed 
practically all their stock cars, double and single deck, and 
called them private cars, and named them the Keystone 
Livestock cars. In this way they could give a rebate by 
going to the shipper, who was using the Millis cars, or any 
other shipper, and get them to use their cars under the pre- 
tense that they could give them a rebate without violating 
the Elkins law. This was some two years or more after 



With the Beef Teust 143 

Millis came to me. 'Donnell, the Turk, King of Ireland, 
came from Chicago to see me, and wanted to know if I 
would use the Keystone cars, saying he would give me $5 
per car. I said no. I told him as I did Millis that I would 
give him a list of my customers. He said he did not want 
to give a rebate to all, but only to the big shippers. How- 
ever, he went to see some of my customers and persuaded 
them to use their cars. He made out the vouchers in my 
name and sent them to me for $5 a car and some $6, and I 
forwarded the vouchers to the customers. In making •my 
trips East my customers commenced inquiring if there were 
not some rebates, I frankly told them that O'Donell had 
given some rebates, and that I had forwarded the vouchers 
to those entitled to them. I tipped it off to all, and 'Don- 
ell came rushing over from Chicago to see me, and said, 
' - You are playing hell. Every little fellow shipping from 
one to five cars a week wants a rebate. You even tipped it 
off to F. Schenk & Sons, of Wheeling, and they are de- 
manding $5 a car on Wheeling shipments, and their haul is 
only half the distance from Chicago to New York. ' ' 
Schenk had been a very heavy regular customer of mine 
for as much as twenty years. In fact, I bought nearly all 
they killed. They bought a close sort of the best grades of 
200 to 250-pound hogs, the best in the market. 'Donell got 
in a fuss with the Schenks and they quit him and began 
shipping via the Wheeling & Lake Erie and Baltimore & 
Ohio roads. Neither of these roads came into Indianapolis, 
and my shipments to them had to go out on the Big Pour or 
the C, H. & D. from Indianapolis to connect with the B. 
& 0. or the Wheeling & Lake Erie. They made shipments 
over these roads for awhile, and in a few months the Penn- 



144 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

sylvania got nervous about losing the business and walked 
up to the Schenk's office and I understand gave them the 
$5 rebate on the short haul. 

THIRD — NELSON MORRIS & CO., CHICAGO. 

I first became acquainted with Nelson Morris I think 
in 1865 or '66 when he came West to pick up a few cattle. 
He soon drifted into Chicago and commenced buying dead 
hogs in the stock yards and went into the fertilizer business. 
Yon understand the fertilizer and junk business is a fa- 
vorite one for Jews, for they will not work on a farm. He 
also commenced buying cripples. What are known as crip- 
ples in the stock yards are those that cannot walk from the 
cars to the pen. He went to the front fast in a short time. 
He was industrious and a hard worker, and would work all 
night if necessary. He was one of the sure " early to bed 
and early to rise. ' ' Some nights he never went to bed. He 
got a little place to kill his cripples and render his deads, 
and soon expanded into a packing house, and he finally got 
to dividing the white grease he got out of the dead hogs 
and the black grease after rendering them, later on called 
tanking them. He put the good dead hogs in one tank and 
the bad ones, that is, those that were nearly gone, in an- 
other tank. As I recollect it, in about 72 to 74 he com- 
menced the refining of lard. He was one of the first re- 
finers, yet probably Washington Butcher Sons, of Baltimore, 
got to be one of the largest refiners and dealers in lard. 
They were one of the oldest and strongest houses dealing in 
provisions and lard in the United States back forty or sev- 
enty-five years ago. As fast as the older ones died the 
younger ones came along and took up the business, and soon 



With the Beef Tkust 145 

they went into the business of refining and making imper- 
fect lard so extensively that they killed off their trade, as 
Great Britain or any other place would not take it. The 
younger set of Washington Butcher Sons failed about 1880, 
possibly as late as '81. At that time I had speculated some- 
what on the Chicago Board of Trade, buying largely pro- 
visions. I spent considerable time going 'back and forth to 
Chicago, and I commenced buying what was known as clear 
ribbed sides, and at the time of their failure I owned one 
million seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds of it. 
The report of Washington Butcher Sons' failure caused me 
to lose $22,000 in one hour trying to get out at this time. 
I quit the speculating and have not had a deal in Chicago 
since. At that time Old Hutch was the whole thing in Chi- 
cago. He was the cuckoo on the Board in his time. He 
could give Patten cards and spades. 

I bought for Nelson Morris as much as sixty or seventy 
car loads of cattle in one day, and in fact there were times 
when I contracted for him for as much as three or ten thou- 
sand head in May or June — sometimes earlier and some- 
times later, with an option to take them in July, August 
or September from the large feeders in Indiana, men that 
fed from one hundred to fifteen hundred cattle, such as the 
Morgans, Blue Jeans Williams and Lockridge; also Sam 
Cutsinger, who always fed from 1,000 to 1,500 head on 
starch slop in Edinburg and Columbus, Ind., who was the 
best feeder I ever knew. His cattle always sold for half a 
dollar to a dollar more per 100 than any other cattle, es- 
pecially in Great Britain. Everybody wanted Cutsinger 
cattle. 

Nelson got so he knew all the best feeders. The cattle 

[10] 



146 Twenty Years in Hell 

I bought for Nelse at that time were largely for export — 
he always exported good ones. Later on when he got to 
putting so many on slop I bought thousands of feeders for 
him every year. He had fifteen to twenty years ago, and 
up to the time of his death, practically control of all the slop 
of all the stillhouses in the United States. Afterward the 
trusts made certain arrangements and divided the territory 
of the country. That gave Nelse all the slop in Ohio, Ken- 
tucky, Indiana and Pennsylvania. None of the others could 
get in on it except the "High Priest/' Allerton. He had 
some stillhouses. Nelse always put bulls, when he could get 
enough of them, where he could feed them on slop. He 
has had as many as ten thousand at a time in Peoria, 111. I 
often shipped to Peoria, also to Terre Haute, practically all 
the bulls. I also often shipped to Kentucky and also to 
Pennsylvania for Nelse. 

I received many telegrams from Nelse. He always 
signed them Nelson Morris, and I knew he sent them him- 
self. "Buy everything in the yards; don't let anything 
get away. Send exporters to Newport News (or some other 
place where he had boats) , the feeders to Peoria (or to Ken- 
tucky or somewhere else), the butchers and canners that 
have big calves in them to Chicago. Answer quick what 
you have done. ' ' 

He knew me and knew he could not drive me, and yet he 
knew that I would buy some. He was a very nervous man. 
He kept as much as a half a cord of red cedar sticks about 
ten inches long and one and a half inches wide stacked up 
in his office and a sharp knife near by, where he could whit- 
tle until he had piled up shavings all around. He had four 
or five stenographers to take his telegrams for him, and 



With the Beef Trust 147 

possibly he wired everybody who was buying for him at the 
same time he wired me to purchase stock, and in a short 
time the answers commenced coming in. He got so many 
that possibly by nine or ten o'clock I would get a telegram 
from him reading, "What have you got? Report. Don't 
buy anything for me — overstocked." I replied, "Too late. 
Got a good many but did not get them off." 

The best thing about Nelse was whenever you bought 
them for him he would stand hitched. He never turned 
down a trade, and I bought thousands of cattle for him 
that I had not paid a cent on, although the rule was to pay 
$5 a head on cattle and $1 on hogs, and he had not paid a 
cent on, and when the cattle market would break or did not 
go to his expectations then his contract cattle would be big 
losers, sometimes $1 to $1.50 per hundred. Of course every- 
body knew that I was buying for Nelson Morris, and they 
knew that Nelson was good and they knew that I was good, 
and that we both would stand hitched. Nelse would order 
the cattle in. He would say, "They will ruin me, but I 
will have to take them." He never turned a trade down. 
This was the longest suit he had in business. 

Now I could go further with Nelse, but I will have to 
take him up later with some others. He was in a way about 
as smart as any of them at times, but at times he was a big 
loser. He w r ould have been worth five hundred millions if 
he had not been a big loser by buying too many gold bricks. 

Let me cite when he bought Arthur Jordan's chicken 
houses in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois — some sixty 
to one hundred plants, paying something like six to seven 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars for them. I happened 
to be in Chicago some time afterwards and met Nelse and 



148 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

he said : ' ' Rhody, that Jordan has ruined me ; he sold me 
a gold brick; I cannot can any more chickens. I cannot 
use my calves out of the canners ; nobody can can chicken 
unless they can can calves. ' ' He bought a good many gold 
bricks. He once had to go behind Parson Swift, as he 
called him. You understand that one of Nelson's sons mar- 
ried Parson Swift's daughter, and one of Parson Swift's 
sons married Nelson's daughter. Swift ran the Methodist 
church at the Chicago stock yards and Nelse ran the Jewish 
tabernacle. Swift worked the church all the time, but 
Nelse only a part of the time, but was a good producer. 

I understand that Parson Swift was finally in trouble 
during the year 1893 and Nelson stood by him. That was 
generally understood in the trade. It was before E. C. 
Swift had gotten so strong and his New England banks were 
in a good deal of trouble, the same as Fletcher's bank was, 
referred to in my Jimtown speech. They were largely con- 
servative, same as Fletcher's. 

FOURTH — SWIFT & CO., CHICAGO. 

Swift & Company is only a myth or a name. The Par- 
son Swift was supposed to be the whole thing, but the fact 
is the Hollis Company originally started him, the same as 
Morris, in the fertilizer business. Then they drifted into 
hides, handling about all the hides. Hides are classed with 
fertilizer, as they take a great deal of fertilizer off in dress- 
ing hides. They soon went into the wool business, then 
soon got to buying sheep and lambs, and w T ere among the 
first exporters. They got in with the money powers and 
they saw that they were money makers ; in fact, they could 
not lose in that kind of business, making five hundred per 



With the Beef Trust 149 

cent, out of dead hogs. The white grease comes from dead 
hogs. All stock yards now sell dead hogs at half a cent or 
a cent a pound. Thirty years ago we had three men in In- 
dianapolis buying dead hogs on these prices. One hog 
might bring two or three dollars per hundred according to 
size and how long dead. 

They went into the little town of Providence. R. I., one 
of the richest in the early ages, and probably so now for its 
size, money loaners and money schemers. This is the little 
town where the Czar comes from. 

I never knew the Parson and never knew any of his 
sons; in fact, I did not deal with such little fellows as he 
was when he went West, but I did know E. C. Swift and 
knew him well after he absorbed my old friend Charlie 
North, a man for whom I had bought as many as thirty 
double deck car loads of hogs in a day without an order. 
Charlie served as president of the company the first year 
after they bought control of the company. The next year 
they chopped his head off and elected E. C. Swift, who be- 
came the whole thing. The next year he sold out all his 
stock and went South and bought North Carolina railroads 
and African diamond and gold mines, and in less than five 
or eight years he was broke. I was in Boston just before 
he died. He was in debt. He had a little office and had 
on a seedy suit of clothes that he had worn for some time, 
and w T hen I got up to go he said : ' i Rhody , could you loan 
me $50 V I told him yes, and willingly did it. He was a 
grand good man and somewhat nervous like Nelson Morris. 
He was about as large a dealer as John Squire, yet they 
were very jealous of each other and very strong competi- 
tors. I would buy for both of them, and sometimes John 



150 Twenty Years in Hell 

would take me inside of his private room and shut the door 
and try to get me to figure out how many pigs there were 
in the West, and he would say: "What is Charlie North 
doing ?" I would tell him I did not know, and maybe 
within an hour Charlie would take me into his private office 
and go through about the same as John had. They were 
both friends of mine and both large customers. I always 
tried to tell them about the prospects of the number of pigs 
there would be and that would be marketed that fall or 
spring. They had confidence in my judgment as to the 
possibility of the crop. John was the farthest seeing man 
I ever knew, and he would have all the new repairs made 
before Charlie would find out what he was going to do. 
and then Charlie would make the same repairs the next 
year or two afterwards. They started in business prac- 
tically about the same time and were the first people that 
ever slaughtered a hog in the United States for the purpose 
of selling fresh pork in the spring or summer. I think 
possibly the first time fresh pork sold in the summer was 
in 1864 or '65. 

The first lot ever bought in Hamilton county or in Madi- 
son county, and in fact in western Indiana, was a car load 
of hogs I bought that spring or summer. I bought at El- 
wood at that time — about half in Hamilton county and the 
other half in Tipton county — and shipped over the Penn- 
sylvania and Junction road to Cincinnati in September 
when I got home from the army in '65. I sold them to 
Fort, Sadler & Company, at that time practically the first 
firm that went into the commission business in Cincinnati 
during the war. They did their business at the Brighton 
yards, the only yards there were at the time. They were 



With the Beef Teust 151 

practically in the center of Cincinnati. I went there in 
the morning about sun-up and met Sadler and Fort. I 
had bought the hogs at 5 cents per pound; I did not know 
what they would sell for. John Rule fed twenty in Ham- 
ilton county and W. H. Harmon fed thirty-two in Tipton 
county. When I got out to the yards they tried to buy the 
hogs from me. I did not know what they were w T orth until 
I read the Enquirer. I told them I would take the top of 
the market in the Enquirer. They baffled me. It was the 
first time I was ever in Cincinnati, and I was hanging on to 
the cars to keep from getting lost or run over. I had some 
boys driving them a mile through the city to the Brighton 
yards. Those boys said those pigs would bring 9 cents a 
pound, and one little fellow said they would bring 9^ 
cents. I got the Enquirer and found the top of the market 
was 9 cents. I soon caught on and I asked 9 1 / 4 cents a 
pound. They got mad, and I said I would just keep them, 
and in a few minutes they took the hogs. I made $192 on 
that load of hogs. That gave me confidence in myself, and 
from then on I was the whole thing in central Indiana. 

I met Si Mull, who was one of the grandest men I ever 
knew, and whose son has a letter in the brief. He was one 
of the biggest feeders of hogs on slop — had thousands of 
them. Also Isaac Loder; he was a great man, and Train 
Caldwell was another. These were all Rush county, In- 
diana men, the grandest county in Indiana, and had more 
big moneyed men than any five counties in the State at that 
time. They said there were a lot of stock hogs in Northern 
Indiana, and asked me if I would not go up there and buy 
them, as there was a failure of corn this year in the north. 
I asked them how many they wanted and they said twenty 



152 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

or thirty thousand to put on stillhouse slop feed. It daz- 
zled me at the time and I told them I did not have any 
money. I had only about $1,000. Si Mull pulls out a 
package of $5,000 and hands it to me and says : "You take 
this money and buy those hogs." This was the first time 
I had ever seen him. I told him he had better not give me 
all that money, that I would run away with it, and he said : 
i ' I will risk you. You won 't run ; you look good to me and 
I will take the chance. ' ' When I came back home with the 
$5,000 package Mull had given me with which to buy hogs 
I showed it to my mother. I suppose she had never seen 
$5,000 at one time before in her life. She put both arms 
around me and kissed me and said : ' ' God speed you. Don't 
ever betray this or any other man." I bought thousands 
of hogs for them. There was never any question after this 
about my credit in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, or anywhere 
else where I did business. The action of Mr. Mull and my 
success in buying for him gave me confidence in myself and 
established my credit with all the Cincinnati packers. I 
could get any amount of money anywhere with which to 
ship stock in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and parts of Kentucky. 
It was just like getting money from home where you have 
a liberal father. My credit never was questioned anywhere 
until the Swift people tied themselves up with the High 
Priest of the Pennsylvania Railroad and divided the coun- 
try. 

Enough on that, as I will have to take them up in con- 
nection with other men. "V 



With the Beef Trust 153 

FIFTH HAMMOND & CO., DETROIT, MICH. 

I will not dwell long with Hammond & Co. Back in 
the 70 's I used to buy as much as eight, ten, twelve or fif- 
teen cars of hogs a day for Hammond, Standish & Co., of 
Detroit. Both the members of the firm were my personal 
friends and were elegant gentlemen — no better in the trade. 
Some time about twenty-three to twenty-six years ago Ham- 
mond & Co. got to shipping provisions to Providence, R. I. 
They got also to exporting largely. They got in with Corn- 
stock and the money powers of Providence. In the little 
town of Hammond, Indiana, on the line of Indiana and 
Illinois, they organized a company to slaughter cattle for 
the New England and export trade. They w T ere among the 
first to handle dressed cattle for export. There was no one 
doing this at that time except Tim Eastman. They bought 
the ground and built what is known as the Hammond pack- 
ing house at Hammond for the purpose of slaughtering cat- 
tle. They slaughtered only high-grade cattle. They 
shipped their stuff into New England and to Europe, and 
that trade took nothing but high grade cattle at that time. 
Some time after that Hammond died and Comstock, one 
of the rich men of Providence, became the president of the 
company. The Czar is no doubt more familiar with this 
deal than I am. I want to be fair with him, and ask if he 
is not a large stockholder in this and other companies. 
Eighteen or twenty years ago an English syndicate bought 
the Chicago stock yards for about fifteen or twenty million 
dollars. Then what was known as the "Big Four" bought 
five or six thousand acres of land now covered by the city 
of Gary. Nelson Morris was really one of the promoters. 



154 Twenty Years in Hell 

He told me all about it at the time. Armour, Swift, Cuda- 
hy, and in fact all of the big ones at that time agreed to 
move out and build new plants and a new stock yard where 
Gary is now, near Hammond. In that case Hammond 
would not have to move, and the English syndicate would 
have the Chicago stock yards and no business. The Eng- 
lish syndicate which had bought the stock yards took fright 
and the deal was not made. Nelson told me, I think, the 
English syndicate gave them seven million dollars not to 
move, and they were to keep all the land. 

Nelson used to tell me everything when I would go to 
Chicago and get confidential with him, but in the deal Ham- 
mond was to abandon the town named for him and move 
into Chicago with his slaughter houses, which he did. 

SIXTH — SCHWARZCHILD & SULZBERGER. 

I will not dwell much on S. & S. I never did any busi- 
ness with them. They were elegant gentlemen, so far as I 
knew, in the early days. They were the only slaughter 
house at the east foot of 35th street, in fact, the only slaugh- 
ter house at the east foot of any street so far as I know. 
They killed high grade cattle and bought very largely from 
Buffalo, Ohio and Chicago, but they never bought any cat- 
tle in Indiana until after the Indianapolis Stock Exchange 
put me out. They sent a young man to Attica, Indiana, 
by the name of Joseph, and he forwarded cattle to them 
from western Indiana and eastern Illinois (in Joseph Can- 
non 's district). Later he married the daughter of one of 
the firm and became the whole thing so far as buying the 
cattle in he West was concerned, and when they put me 
out of business in Indianapolis that fertilizer, Eauh, took 



With the Beef Trust 155 

my man Abe Kahn away from me, whom I picked up after 
he had failed twice. I thought he w T as going to commit sui- 
cide. I built him a house and put him to buying cattle for 
me. He was a man of fair judgment. He had been a 
wholesale dealer in cattle. He prospered and expanded so 
I had him build him a good house. His four boys worked 
for me at different times. He had one of the best wives I 
ever knew — there never was a better one. I was a pall- 
bearer at her funeral, and was at the church at the con- 
firmation of their boys, a very solemn service. She was 
always grateful to me for it. To my utter astonishment 
when Rauh beeame president of the stock yards Kahn came 
to me and said: "I have been with you a long time. I 
think I had better go into business myself. The boys want 
to go into business. ' ' I said, ' ' All right, Mr. Kahn. ' ' Rauh 
sent them East and arranged with S. & S. to become the 
buyers for them in the Indianapolis yards. In dividing up 
the territory at that time Nelson Morris was not to buy any 
more cattle in Indianapolis yards and S. & S. was to take 
eastern Indiana, Ohio and parts of Kentucky. This was 
done to take away from me some of my good customers. 

They went along and bought there until I left, and I 
presume are still buying there, but finally Swift worked in 
and got control of S. & S., as I understand it, and dis- 
charged Joseph. He brought suit in the United States 
court and obtained judgment for about $250,000, which has 
recently been affirmed by the Supreme Court. 

While in South America I found that S. & S. had gone 
down there and put in cold storage and refrigerators, and 
arranged to ship dressed beef from South America to Great 
Britain. It is now really Swift. They had never slaugh- 



156 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

tered a hog until about fifteen years ago, and do not slaugh- 
ter very many now except the kind of stuff that Flagler is 
making you use in all his big hotels. While in Florida I 
stopped at five or six of his hotels, paying from $8 to $10 
per day, which are his rates at Miami, Palm Beach, Daytona 
and St. Augustine. 

I took special pains to see what kind of stuff he was 
supplying to his guests, as during my travels in the South 
and in Cuba I found none of the hotels that were a corpora- 
tion but what was buying with a contract from some house 
of the beef trust. I found also that Flagler was getting all 
his meat, eggs and poultry from S. & S. I did not see an 
egg in his hotels that was not a storage egg, and that did 
not have a spot like a chicken 's eye in the center of it, and 
looked like it had been in storage for a year or more. He 
was feeding at some of his hotels also what are known as 
California hams, which are in reality shoulders. No one 
could eat the bacon he served, as it was all quick chemically 
cured and came out of hogs known as i i roughs ' ' and 
" culls " at all stock yards, the kind Kingan had to take at 
Indianapolis when I was buying all the good ones. Enough 
of S. & S. at this time. 

SEVENTH KINGAN & CO., INDIANA, AND ST. CLAIR & CO., 

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA. 

1 must start with this firm when I first knew them. 
During the war the firm was, to my best recollection, called 
Reid & Kingan, of Cincinnati, Ohio. I am not sure whether 
they came here before the war or during the war, but cer- 
tainly about that period. While in Cincinnati they failed 
1 eannol say just whether it was in '66, '67 or '68. Reid 



With the Beef Trust 157 

took sick and I think died in Cincinnati, yet he may have 
gone back to Belfast with his four boys. The boys, as I 
recollect it, were named Sammy, Willie, Robert and Jimmie. 
Jimmie always lived in Belfast. As I understand it, their 
mother used to live in Belfast. Samuel, who is probably 
ninety years old, is still living, and, as I now recall it, 
is bossing the job in Belfast. Thomas, whom I boarded 
with in the same hotel for twenty years, after he 
broke went to Joseph Patterson, of Rush county, Indiana. 
There was where most of the big men were at that time. 

I do not know how many of the Kingans were interested 
in the Cincinnati house, but when they failed in Cincinnati, 
Jos. Patterson, who lived in Rush county, Ind., and a great 
friend of the firm of Caldwell & Loder, and, in fact, a 
friend of all the packers in Cincinnati and connected with 
the Cincinnati houses and with plenty of money, went be- 
hind Thomas Kingan, who, I think, was the oldest of the 
Kingan brothers, which were Thomas, James and Samuel. 
Samuel is still living in Belfast. James was killed by walk- 
ing off of a train of cars between Boston and New T York, 
something like thirty years ago. It was said he got up in 
life sleep and walked off the car. At any rate, his mangled 
body was found beside the track. He was a very pushing- 
man and a big speculator in provisions in New York. There 
had been a break in the provision market at New York and 
there were many comments as to the real circumstances sur- 
rounding his death. 

Samuel Kingan was not often in America, but always 
lived in Belfast and is still living there at the age of about 
ninety years. He was regarded as the real balance wheel 
cf the firm all the time, and I understand still has his hand 



158 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

on the button. Thomas was a very careful man; he died 
some eight or ten years ago at his castle near London. He 
and I boarded at the Grand Hotel at Indianapolis about 
twenty-five years ago, and married about the same time. 
He was a very fine man and confidential with me, we always 
took breakfast together, about five o'clock in the morning. 
We continued living in the same hotel after our marriage. 
Two of my children were born in the hotel. Kingan never 
had any children. When he died his large estate went to 
one of the Reid boys. The elder Reid, so I understand, mar- 
ried the only sister of the three Kingan boys. Patterson 
and Kingan bought a small plant at Indianapolis, as I recol- 
lect it, and that was sometime about the time when the 
Kingans left Cincinnati. They made money practically 
from the start, but Patterson was old and was known in the 
trade as " Uncle Joe." He soon drew out and the other 
Kingans took his place. My information was, the St. Clairs 
were very rich people in Belfast and they went behind them 
and they prospered from that time on. Some time in the 
early 70s, I think about 75 or 77, the St. Clairs built a 
small house in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, known as St. Clair and 
Company. I understand the house has always been con- 
trolled and manipulated by the Belfast house. They are 
both, I think, incorporated under the Belfast laws and pay 
their taxes mostly in Ireland. 

When the stock yards opened here thirty-two years ago, 
Thomas Kingan, himself, was doing practically all the busi- 
ness here. He had a bookkeeper he brought here in about 
70, known as John Moore. He was one of the best I ever 
saw. Moore did all the bookkeeping and Thomas Kingan 
did all the shipping and buying and looking after the weigh- 



With the Beef Tkust 159 

ing, and even watching the packing. Later an elegant gen- 
tleman from Belfast came over. He was called a dude at 
that time, because he dressed in English style. His name 
was John St. Clair. He became a buyer at the stock yards 
at the time the stock yards opened, and was a main competi- 
tor of mine. We got along all right, as he was a gentleman. 
About a year afterwards, as he was going between his office 
and the packing house, he got killed between two freight 
cars. After that, his cousin, Thomas St. Clair, came over. 
He was a fine man and we got along together all right. 
Soon they sent a man by the name of James Cunning, who 
was skilled in buying hogs in the Belfast market, having be- 
gun when he was a boy. He did everything quickly and 
caught onto the market readily. I could not always tell 
what he was going to do by his actions. The fact is he is 
worth a half a million a year more to the house than the 
man that is bossing the job now, but they had to take him 
back to manage the house. Some twenty or twenty-three 
years ago they put a man by the name of John M. Shaw 
there to superintend the buying. He had a nephew whose 
father was one of the professors in one of the big colleges 
at Belfast, Ireland, and was educated in his father's college, 
but was sent to America to buy hogs. As I understand it, 
it was John 's sister 's only son. John put him first to carry- 
ing the telegrams and keeping the weights in the yards. 
Here is where all the friction began. I had four, five or six 
men watching what was going on and watching every move 
the Kingans made, as they were strong competitors of mine. 
These men of mine did all the inspection and buying for 
me. I did not have a ten-year-old boy doing an errand for 
me that was not smarter than this nephew, Spears, was — in 



160 Twenty Years in Hell 

fact my little colored boy was. They would get a tele- 
gram and when John would come into the yards, and he 
usually came late, they would report the same, and as John 
was bossing the job he had that Spears running around like 
a chicken with his head cut off. When he w r ould walk slow 
after reading his telegram, we knew we could go slow, but 
if he walked fast we knew he wanted them. I would simply 
throw up a stick and give my men the signal. We changed 
our signs every day, so they could not catch on, and in two 
to ten minutes we would have all the good ones in the yards 
and they would not have any. They would get mad and 
have to go and buy hogs elsewhere or else do without them, 
and generally all the good hogs were sold in the other mar- 
kets by that time, as the others opened at six and seven 
o'clock, and our market at eight, consequently they could 
only get " culls" in any market, I never could tell in the 
morning within fifteen or twenty cents what I was going to 
pay. I always bought to the best advantage, which of 
course everybody should do. This is the time when they or- 
ganized the exchange to put me out. Spears got to be the 
whole thing. He was not in the United States two years, or 
perhaps three, before he was lecturing in Purdue Univer- 
sity, telling what he knew about hogs and what he knew 
about meats. To get any good hogs the Kingans had to go 
to Iowa, and they located five stock yards they could con- 
trol, at Oskaloosa, Perry, Burlington and Des Moines, and 
then they got good hogs. They soon had my man Johnson 
operating these yards under the name of John P. Squire & 
Co., but they were really Swift & Co. I made this deal for 
E. C. Swift. 

I never spoke to Spears, but he was the whole thing, and 



With the Beef Trust 161 

his uncle knew there was something in the air; he would 
tell him how I was doing business, and for him to watch the 
signs. This is where the friction got strong between the 
Kingans and myself. Kingan had practically three-fourths 
the commission men and the men of the stock yard company 
in Indianapolis, instructing them that if they sold me this 
good stock the Kingans would not buy their hogs. 

There was a great deal of stealing by bookkeepers and 
all of the commission men had been robbed by them but two 
firms. Note one case — a firm which was very friendly to 
me came around to my office and told me that their book- 
keeper had gone in the closet to commit suicide, and wanted 
me to run in there and save him. I went and found him. 
He had worked for me at one time. I went over the matter 
with him and told him to tell me what the amount was. He 
said $3,800 would make him good in the bank. I told him 
that I would give him a check for $3,800 and make him 
good, but I found it was about- $6,000. I had to go into the 
bank and endorse for this man, a Jew, to bridge the time 
over. 

There was scarcely any day that two or three firms did 
not come to me to get my check for a day or two as ■ ' kites ' ' 
to deposit to make their bank account good until such a 
time as they would get checks floating in the country. All 
of them were heavy speculators in option among one or two 
bucket shops in the stock yards. 

Let me cite one case in reference to W. M. Johnson, who 
was an honest man and a brother to ex-Congressman Jim 
Johnson, a well-known man. He was one of the most con- 
servative and honest and best dealers in the yards. He re- 
ported robbing was going on all the time and he kept watch- 
til] 



162 Twenty Years in Hell 

ing to keep from losing himself ; he had three bookkeepers 
who had robbed him, and he said one James Dick, who had 
been buying hogs for Kingan & Co., had been robbing him 
and everybody else. He set a trap and a big heavy bull 
came in, weighing 1,800 pounds. Johnson, himself, went 
and told Dick that he was buying that bull, and for him to 
keep away. He bought the bull and then turned around 
and sold him to Dick for $1 a hundred more than he paid, 
making the entry on his books just as the transaction oc- 
curred, showing that one-half of the profit went to Jim 
Dick. A few days later they had a trial in Johnson 's office, 
with the other commission men present who had been com- 
plaining about the corruption. John M. Shaw called in 
Dick and when Johnson threw the books down on Dick, 
Dick had to admit the corruption. Then John said : "Dick, 
why did you do this V 9 In a few days they let Dick out of 
the yards and they all promised not to let the circumstance 
get to the public. A number of other men, bookkeepers and 
commission men, had been whitewashed in the same way 
by the Kingans. I understood that Dick went to Kansas 
City and did business with the Reid Brothers, who were 
really the Kingans. These are the Reids who were indicted 
by the grand jury for irregularities in the yard and for 
shipping out overloaded cars, and ran away to Europe and 
stayed there two years. This is a matter of court record 
and newspaper record at the time. These are the chief con- 
spirators who helped to put me out of business. This is the 
young set who do not do business as their fathers did. They 
have all got their four-in-hands and automobiles, while I 
have to work. 

Once Dick Serf had been working for the yards. Every- 



With the Beef Trust 163 

body knew Dick. There was so much talk of corruption 
going on in the wards the city sent some detectives out 
there. They caught him stealing three big hogs and haul- 
ing them out in the night. The detectives had Dick ar- 
rested. When Rauh heard of the arrest he told the detec- 
tives to bring him to the Grand Hotel and not to put him 
in jail, saying, "I will come around and see him. " They 
took him to the Grand Hotel. Dick and Rauh went into con- 
sultation. Dick related all of this to me afterwards. Rauh 
said: "Dick, why did you steal those hogs?" Dick says: 
"Why, I been a-stealing ten to twenty hogs for you every 
day, almost, during the twenty years I have been working 
for the yard company, and I thought it wouldn 't hurt for 
me to take three for myself." Rauh says:- "Hush, hush, 
don 't say anything. You have got to go ; you cannot keep 
at it any longer." I think I can substantiate the above. 
They would often cut the big ones out of my large droves 
and put the big ones in their own places. 

Now I want to deal with the real actor, the boss actor, 
whose name was T. Smith Graves. Some twenty-six or 
twenty-eight years ago T. Smith Graves was attending col- 
lege, at Greencastle, Indiana. He came from a big farm in 
Kentucky. He married the daughter of Michael Sells, who 
ran "a big commission house. At that time they paid two 
and three cents for old hogs and cripples. Graves com- 
menced buying these cripples and speculated on them. He 
was accused of stealing two hogs and he came to me and 
wanted to hand me $2, and wanted me to let him have the 
cripples for $5.00 less than the cripples were worth. 
Finally he was caught dead to rights, and they were going 
to have him arrested, but he ran away to Kentucky, and took 



164 Twenty Yeabs in Hell 

his wife with him, also two children. His father-in-law told 
me afterwards that he went down there to see him and he 
found him and his daughter living in a nigger shanty on his 
fathers farm. He said his daughter wanted to come home, 
and he asked me if I would not let Graves come back. I 
told him to let him come and he fixed it up with the others. 
Then he got along all right ; he went to work, and finally 
he went into the firm with Sells and got to be the whole 
thing. They were making $20,000 to $30,000 a year. 

After they put me out of the yards I brought a suit for 
$200,000 damage against the stock company and the Com- 
bine, also including the Indiana National Bank and the Ma- 
lott Bank, for conspiracy. They had all the lawyers they 
could get, some ten in number, headed by W. H. H. Miller 
and Morris & Newberger, a Jew firm. The case was taken 
to Lebanon, where they had a judge with a glass eye and a 
wig. I was a little suspicious of the wig, and I told my at- 
torneys that we had better have a jury, but they advised me 
to try the case before the judge. John W. Kern was my 
chief attorney. The judge ruled with me for several days, 
but I learned that the Jew lawyers had taken the judge on 
a twenty-mile automobile ride and to a supper at Frank- 
fort after night. When I found that out I told Kern that I 
felt like I wanted to dismiss the case. This T. Smith 
Graves did not go on the witness stand — no one went on the 
witness stand except Rauh. The judge in handing down his 
decision said he did not see how the bank could be a con- 
spirator; could not see where Kingan, my competitors, had 
not a right to do so ; that the commission men had a right 
to organize and resolve not to do any more business with me. 
He said it seemed that Graves had been robbing me, but it 



With the Beef Trust 165 

also seemed that he had settled with me every time I caught 
him. 

It was a cuckoo of an explanation for the defendants. 
I found out at the time that Rauh and the judge had been 
together, that Rauh was a friend of the judge while he was 
Speaker of the Indiana House some years before. The 
Stock Yards Company always knew r how to handle the 
Speakers of the Indiana Legislature. They are the best 
lobbyists there are. They always get things in hand early 
and look over the committees. The Speaker of course makes 
the committees, and they find their men long before. No 
doubt this applies to every State where there is a stock yard. 
Enough of this. 

We are told in the Bible that the innocent shall suffer 
for the guilty and you will find this illustrated almost every 
day in the lives of some of those we know. I have referred 
in the preceding pages to Graves, who was one of the chief 
conspirators against me. His wife was a grand, noble and 
good woman, and was burned to death in her own home. I 
have also several times referred to the Turk, the King of 
Ireland, and his wrong-doings in the stock. yards and with 
those who were competitors. Three of his grand-children 
were burned to death in the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, 
which broke his good wife's heart and she died. The Jew 
lawyer who took the judge out riding after night had a 
partner by the name of Morris. Morris lived w r ith his 
brother-in-law, who was also a Jew, my comrade in the army 
and one of the best men I ever knew. His house took fire 
and Morris was burned to death, with two of the children of 
his brother-in-law, Dr. Haas. The father never recovered 
from the blow. The man Malott, president of the Indiana 



166 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

National Bank, and chief conspirator and the tool of the 
High Priest against me, has a son Macy, who, according to 
recent newspaper record, was locked up in the station house 
for whipping his wife. He is really a much better man 
than his father. Note this particularly: When MeKee, 
Vice-President of Malott's bank, was on the witness stand 
for about two hours in my suit before the judge who wore a 
wig, and after he had been well rehearsed by W. H. H. 
Miller and the Jew lawyer who were the leading attorneys 
for the conspirators, the only truth he swore to on the stand 
was that he knew my name was R. R. Shiel, and that I had 
done business at his bank. He knew nothing about the pro- 
testing of my check; nothing about refusing me money at 
any time ; or of Malott refusing to let me make a note for 
$3,000 to pay any overcheck that I might have ; nothing 
about Malott 's refusing to take a note endorsed by Fitz- 
gerald, who is worth a million, and Bishop Chatard. When 
Malott was on the stand he admitted all these things. My 
attorney, John W. Kern, got him tangled. Ed Porter, 
Secretary of the bank, when Malott got tangled, slipped out 
the back way. 

EIGHTH ARMOUR & COMPANY. 

As to Armour & Company, I knew old Phil well, having 
met him. I think, about '68, not later than '69, in Chicago, 
on the Board of Trade, and knew him as long as I went to 
Chicago. Phil was really a very fair dealer. He had in his 
employ when I first knew him, a number of Cudahys. 
Mike and Patrick I never knew personally, as they did not 
come on the Board of Trade at that time, but I did know 
John. He conducted and maintained a bi£ house well until 



With the Beef Trust 167 

the other fellows got to doing everything wrong, and he had 
to follow suit. After his death they got to playing like the 
other people. They got to making the same kind of stuff 
that Nelse and the Parson made, and, as I understand it, 
even got to canning chicken. I never knew Ogden; they 
say he is a very clever fellow, trying to keep the money his 
father left him. Well, enough of this. 

NINTH — CUDAHY & COMPANY. 

They are known as cuckoos, John, especially. John is 
really the onlv one I know, and I don't know him well. He 
is the one that stays in Chicago and does the manipulating, 
or really what E. C. Swift does for the Swift people. They 
bought out some years ago, around '80, as I recall it, the 
Plankington Packing House of Milwaukee, Wis., which was 
a large packing house. They prospered fast ; they were three 
very industrious Irishmen. Some years ago they bought a 
house that was known as the Hughes, Taggart & Co.. at 
Louisville, Ky., and changed it to the Louisville Packing Co. 
Cudahy bought this house and I bought hogs for them, 
just the same as I had been buying for Hughes. Taggart 
& Co. But when the fight came, Cudahy said that he 
would not pay $6 commission, and wanted to pay only $3. 
I told them I had only one commission, and then he joined 
in with the others and chopped my head off. While I was 
buying for Squire, and buying especially from all the good 
and best farmers, something like one hundred to one thou- 
sand head from a farm, Cudahy sent his man Taylor — in 
fact, sent three men — into Indiana and tried to knock me 
out of buying the Morgans and the Scotts, who had two or 
three thousand hogs, and even went right into Indiana, 



168 Twenty Years in Hell 

north of Indianapolis, a thing unknown in the trade at 
Frankfort, and put Taylor up there, as I had a big terri- 
tory. They tried to crowd me in buying the hogs. Taylor 
is still living. A few years ago I went to Chicago and had a 
conference with John, and I asked him why in the name of 
sense he didn't keep off of me there. He said he wanted 
to buy good ones and that I was buying all the good ones. 
I told him that I would buy some of these good ones and 
send them down to him if he would pay me the commission. 
He said they did not pay a commission ; that they had their 
own men. I suppose th,ey have a right to buy there. They 
are right in the deal and doing the bidding of the Trusts. 
Well, enough of this. 

TENTH NATIONAL PACKING COMPANY. 

The National Packing Company is a very far-reaching 
thing. As I understand it, there was originally a house 
that had that name in Chicago, and they bought it. This 
house was to be used for a killer off of smaller houses, and 
they would go into a small town and give provisions away 
while they were doing the killing. They have killed off 
practically all of the good-sized houses in the United States, 
with the exception of three or four. They were never able 
to do anything with the Cleveland Provision Co., Cleveland, 
Ohio. It was an old house and had a high grade established 
trade in Europe, and were very heavy exporters of pork. 
Ben Rose, the President, and practically the owner, has just 
recently died, leaving no heirs. He was reported to be 
worth five to eight million dollars. He gave a million dol- 
lars !o the Old Ladies' Home at Cleveland. I think he Avas 
a Scotchman and was ninety years old when he died. He 



With the Beef Trust 169 

often told me they would never get him, that his house gave 
honest stuff and the same kind of lard, etc., as he did years 
ago ; that he never went into adulterating food, or using the 
short process of curing any of their food, or stuff any of 
their hams with chemicals in order that they might get them 
off in four or five days. He said he always found that 
when he sold a customer a good ham that they always came 
back for others. He was a very fair man. He had con- 
siderable to do with the passing of the meat inspection bill. 

Once w T hen he was in Washington I took him and his 
wife to the White House and introduced them to President 
and Mrs. Harrison. He spent an hour or more with him, 
and the President had us stay for dinner, and he explained 
to the President the new process of curing meat quickly 
and ruining the whole country. 

The National Packing Company w T as organized and the 
stock prorated among all the members of the Trust, so if 
there was either loss or profit they would share and share 
alike. But the same man who made the price in Chicago 
for the different cuts for all the Trusts, named the price 
also for the National Packing Company. When the Trust 
made up its mind to kill off a small house anywhere, the Na- 
tional Packing Company was the club used, and would send 
its meats into the place and almost give it away until the 
small house succumbed. 

CINCINNATI AND LOUISVILLE PACKERS. 

Note the following names of men I commenced doing- 
business with in 1865 and 1866, who were the packers at 
that time in Cincinnati and Louisville. I dealt only with 
the large packers. 



170 Twenty Years in Hell 

In Cincinnati : The strongest man at that time and 
leaving one of the richest estates in Cincinnati, whom the 
beef trust was unable to break, was Joseph Raw T son. He 
was doing business under the name of Joseph Rawson & 
Son. He was known by those in the trade as Old Joe. He 
left his business to his sons, who have conducted it since, 
only in a smaller way. 

The second was Caldwell, Loder & Co. The members 
of this firm were Rush county, Indiana, men, but doing- 
business in Cincinnati, although living in Rush and Fayette 
counties, Indiana, in Watson's district. This firm was one 
of the best known firms that ever did business in Cincinnati. 
I never had better friends than the members of this firm 
and the men associated with them. They would have backed 
me with all the money they could -get at every turn of the 
road. 

The third was J. L. Keck & Brother, or Si, as we called 
him. Si was much younger than Joe, Ike or Train, as we 
called Caldwell Train and Loder Ike and Rawson Joe, as I 
have said. Si was young and very progressive. He would 
be at the yards by daybreak in the morning doing his own 
buying. Joe, Train and Ike very rarely went to the yards. 
I did a very heavy business with all of them, but sold Si 
more than any of the others the first two years. I remem- 
ber one time during the panic of '73, when nobody could 
get any money anywhere, 1 had something more than $25,- 
000 worth of hogs and shipped thern in one train to Cin- 
cinnati. I banked at that time with Fletcher and Sharpe 
at Indianapolis. 1 never had a better friend, and no better 
man ever lived or died than Ingram Fletcher. I had bought 
most of the lion's in Indiana, and Illinois on time until I 



With the Beef Trust 171 

could get back with the money. Ingram asked me if I 
could not get the currency at Cincinnati and bring it home. 
I told him I thought I could get it of Joe, Train, Ike or Si. 
Si showed up early in the morning after the hogs reached 
Cincinnati and seemed to be anxious to buy them. "We 
could not at first agree upon a price, but later on we did. 
Si was to give me the currency, as I wanted it to pay for 
the hogs. My impression is there were more than 2,000 
head of hogs. He said he would get the money if he had to 
knock a man down for it, and I sold him the hogs. It was 
some time in the afternoon before Ave got through weighing 
the hogs. I had wanted to make the 2 p. m. train for In- 
dianapolis, but found I could not do so and wired Ingram 
I would be in Indianapolis at 11 o'clock that night with 
the stuff, and for him to meet me at the depot. When Si 
and I got to the bank it was closed, but he had sent word 
that he had to have the money. They let us in the side 
door about 4 p. m. and the bank handed out the money in 
packages. I put it in my grip and hung on to the grip 
until I reached Indianapolis. Ingram met me at the depot 
and we went immediately to his bank and placed the money 
in the vault. I regret I have not space 'to deal more at 
length with others I did business with in Cincinnati, all of 
whom were excellent gentlemen and did business in the Mis- 
souri way. 

Louisville : I think I was fully as strong if not stronger 
in Louisville as in Cincinnati. Among the first I did busi- 
ness with there in 1865 or '66 was Hughes, Gauzley & Co. 
Colonel Grauzley. of the firm, was on General Forest's staff 
during the war. He was as much as ten or fifteen years 
older than I. The firm had the largest house in Louisville 



172 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

at that time. Gauzley came up to Indianapolis to see me 
with Col. Horace Scott, at that time superintendent of the 
J., M. & I. Railroad. Horace wanted the hogs to go over 
his road to Louisville and Gauzley wanted them for his 
packing house. Horace knew me, but I had never met 
Gauzley, but his Kentucky hospitality soon had me going 
down the pike. He wanted me to give him all my hogs, but 
of course I had to take care of Joe and Ike and the other 
Cincinnati boys. I did finally give him from twenty-five to 
thirty-five cars a day. 

Some two years after this, while waiting for a train at 
his country residence some twelve or fourteen miles out of 
Louisville, he was accidentally drawn under the train and 
killed. I do not believe I ever lost a better friend or felt 
as sad. After his death the firm became Hughes, Taggart* 
& Co. and continued under that name until they were 
bought out by Cudahy when he took in Louisville in the 
division of territories. T*his house has been able to with- 
stand the beef trust. Note the names of others I did busi- 
ness with in Louisville : Fred Leib & Sons. The beef trust 
broke him and broke -his heart. He never ordered less than 
2,500 head at a time. In fact, the Louisville people seldom 
ever ordered less than 1,500 head at a time, and sometimes 
as high as 3,000. During the packers' strike about '87, 
when there w r ere no packing houses operating in Chicago 
for some weeks, I went to Chicago on Mondays and took 
out of that city from 15,000 to 20,000 daily, which I sent 
to Louisville and Cincinnati. In addition I had a number 
of country people sending their hogs to the packers there. 
I also sent large shipments of hogs from Chicago to my 
Eastern customers, as the Chicago market was at that time 



With the Beef Trust 173 

lower than any in the country. This was before any meat 
inspection law was passed and before I was a dead one. 

I ask the attention of the reader to the following, which 
articles appeared in recent issues of the New York papers : 

THE MEEK CONSUMER. 

To the Editor of The Sun: 

Sir — An editorial paragraph in today's Sun says : "It is al- 
most uncanny, yet it's true. The consumer will not rise.'' 

Wouldn't it be even more remarkable if the consumer should 
rise, for as it stands now the consumer doesn't know any good 
reason for rising, and not knowing any he maintains his average 
calm horizontal position? Since the tariff talk commenced the 
editors have been wondering why the consumer has not rebelled. 
Hasn't it occurred to the editors that unquestionably at least 99% 
per cent, of the average consumers are at the present moment as 
densely ignorant of the nature and effect of the proposed tariff 
schedules as tomorrow's child? The editors feel that they under- 
stand the tariff question somewhat (as their jobs require at least 
a partial knowledge of it), and as the average person believes that 
the rest of humanity knows something about the things with which 
he is familiar, the editors naturally assume that the consumer 
knows something about the tariff. But the average consumer 
knows as little about the tariff as the average congressman or 
senator. 

We should like to know something about the tariff, but we 
don't, and we have a faint idea that we never shall, and that is 
about all there is to it. The consumer has not "been shown" (or 
if he has he is too dense to perceive the demonstration) that he 
will be affected inimically by any possible change in the tariff. 
If it can be bumped into his consciousness that it will cost him 
more to live this year than last year, then every one over seven 
will immediately assume a perpendicular attitude. 

Adam Laird. 

Scranton, Pa., April 22. 



174 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

BEEF TRUST ACCUSED. 



MAY ENTER SHOE BUSINESS IF HIDES TAX IS CONTINUED. 

From the New York Press. 

Vigorous protest against a duty on hides was made Friday by 
Charles H. Jones, of Boston, in speaking on "The Boot and Shoe 
Industry and the Tariff" before the members of the Academy of 
Political Science in the Hotel Astor. The speaker asserted that 
the present duty of 15 per cent, is aiding the beef trust gradually 
to build up a monopoly of the tanning industry of the United 
States, and the result would be that all independent tanners will 
be compelled to buy hides from the beef trust or be driven out of 
business. The only remedy, the speaker said, is to permit the in- 
dependent tanners to have the entire world as their market. 

There were many speakers at the annual meeting of the 
academy, but Jones was the most striking because of his charges 
against the beef trust. He went into the history of the tanning 
business. He said the great packing houses take off one-half the 
hides produced in this country. "They simply own such hides as 
come into their possession in their business of supplying the people 
with meat," he said. "Obviously, neither they nor the farmers 
produce or own one single hide more or less on account of this 
or any other tariff. When a duty was levied on hides the packing 
houses were selling their hides to tanners throughout the country 
and were naturally one of the chief sources of supply to the tan- 
ners. Then the markets of the world were open to all buyers and 
the world's production controlled the price. The duty, however, 
increased the price of foreign hides 15 per cent, and enabled the 
packers to realize a full butcher's profit on the hides and at the 
same time get the hide for about 15 per cent, less than any tanner 
could buy it. The packing houses soon realized the importance of 
their control of the tanners' raw material and naturally undertook 
to secure this profit as well as their own. To do this they began 
to learn the tanning business. 

"To make their control complete," went on the speaker, "they 



With the Beef Trust 175 

have during the past few years bought out large numbers of hide- 
buying agencies scattered throughout the country, and now collect 
thousands of hides which are taken off by local butchers. Thus 
they have so restricted the sources of supply that the independent 
owner must go to them for his raw material, the price of which 
they control. 

"Under these circumstances, if this duty is continued, nothing 
can prevent the ultimate monopoly of the leather business by the 
beef trust. When their control is complete — and it will take only 
a few years to complete it — nothing can prevent their making all 
or such parts of the shoes needed in this country as they desire/' 

CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTH. 

I want to call your especial attention to Mr. Flagler, 
practically the owner of the East coast of Florida. He 
owns all the railroads, all the telegraph offices, all the ex- 
press companies, all the cars and all the best hotels. You 
might say it was a fad of his to go into this wilderness and 
construct all these roads and make such improvements. He 
has managed his investments very differently from J. J. 
Hill. 

You might say that Florida possesses much, especially 
in South Florida, as the climate is as good or better than 
anywhere I have been. Also, it is very easy to get out of 
Florida by water, much harder to get out by rail. I knew 
Mr. Flagler in a way in Cleveland thirty-five or forty years 
ago. I stopped at five or six of his hotels in Florida, in 
Miami, Palm Beach, Daytona and St. Augustine, paying 
from $8 to $10 a day. They were all managed by different 
people, and each manager operated his own hotel, and the 
management of one hotel had to check with that of the 
others. That was done in a way to get the best results. I 



176 Twenty Years in Hell 

understand the hotel business, having been connected with 
that business directly or indirectly for more than forty 
years. I have been stopping at the best hotels for years in 
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and scores 
of other places. I never ask the price of a room, but tell 
them I want a good room, and when I get ready to go I al- 
ways gc and pay for same. I have lived that way ever 
since I have been in business. Ten dollars a day is the 
most that I have ever paid at any of the hotels on the Ameri- 
can plan. All of his hotels are on the American plan. In 
'92 I was a guest for something like ten days at the Ponce 
de Leon, in Florida. I was invited there when Albert J. 
Porter, Minister to Italy, was traveling with me, and I was 
looking after Harrison's nomination. There was a large 
ball there for the Hermitage Institution at Nashville, Ten- 
nessee. I had, I think, the same room this time as I had 
there once before. They charged me $10. Flagler married 
his former housekeeper, and I am told that she is now in 
the insane hospital. She was the best dressed woman at the 
hotel. She was his second wife. I missed him at Palm 
Beach, but I saw his residence, and it is said that it cost two 
or three millions of dollars. The stewards and managers of 
his hotels told me that he checked up one hotel against an- 
other, and the manager that got the best results got the most 
salary. I asked them where they got all of their meat. 
They said that S. & S. supplied all Flagler's hotels. Note 
what I have said elsewhere about the kind of meat that S. 
& S. furnished, especially in the pork line. This is the kind 
that you find in all of Flagler's hotels. The oranges and 
the grape fruit that Flagler used were mostly what are 
called drops, that is the fruit that drops off the trees and 



With the Beef Tkust 177 

can be bought for more than a half less than that which is 
selected and pulled by hand off the trees. I am told that 
Flagler never had the best oranges or grape fruit on his 
tables, many of them having fallen four or five days be- 
fore. A gentleman who owns the largest and best fruit 
farm I saw while in Florida told me that he had twenty 
colored people putting up his fruit, and told me that Flag- 
ler would take many of the drops off of his hands. 

I asked Mr. Ingram, who was Flagler 's third vice-presi- 
dent, whom I met at times, about building up the cattle on 
the lines of the Florida roads, and he said that they prin- 
cipally raised bulls down there to fight in Cuba. I told him 
that I would give him one hundred bulls, sufficient to change 
the whole breed of his cattle, if he would pay the freight on 
them and sterilize all the other bulls within ten miles of his 
road, and in a few years he would have a fine grade of cat- 
tle. He said that he would see me about it, but that he did 
not think it could be done. I told him if he did that he 
could get good meat right at home, and Flagler would not 
have to have his stuff shipped from the North. I found 
that they were furnishing guests at his hotels nothing but 
cows, and Jersey beef, and in the pork line nothing but old 
stags and sows. He told me that he knew nothing about 
that, as each manager operated his hotel so he could show 
the best results, and all meat and egg supplies were bought 
from S. & S., which was contracted for by Flagler. Of 
course every business man buys so he can show good re- 
sults, but I told him that it was not right to buy meats that 
were actually poisonous to people. There is a vast differ- 
ence between meats. I told him that they ought to feed 
nothing but high grade meats. He said, ' ' Well, fish is high 

[12] 



178 Twenty Years in Hell 

grade meat, and we feed fish all the year round. The cost 
of fish is the same as it was thirty years ago there and all 
the way along the coast to Boston. Fish sell all along the 
coast for from ten to twelve cents per pound, and the best 
kind. Fish and the like are higher in the West than in the 
East. They will charge three times as much for beef all 
along the coast as they do for fish, and that of a very poor 
quality. 

Note particularly here what the Trust is doing. I 
stopped at Helena, Arkansas, as I was going down. I in- 
spected the city. I wanted to find out whether it would be 
a good investment to put in street cars. This was a town of 
fifteen to twenty thousand people, and no cars. A friend of 
mine wanted to get the charter. I wrote him to go there 
and get the charter, which he did ; now they are building 
the street railway. I stopped there also when I went back. 
I arranged with him to put in stock yards and a packing 
house in or near the town. The parties arranged to give 
me one hundred acres of land and I had all the deeds and 
everything ready, but the Trust got onto it in some way and 
then the parties would not let me have the land unless I 
would go away out in the country, saying that stock yards 
and a packing house would ruin any city; consequently I 
did not get the land. 

As I was returning from Hot Springs, Ark., I stopped 
four days at Nashville, Tenn., and got in with some friends 
there. I had it in my mind to promote and build a stock 
yard there, as I knew I was in the best part of the South, 
and could get a large supply of live stock in that section, 
and close enough to go in the Northwest, knowing if I was 
short in the Northwest I could get there with my stock in 



With the Beef Tiujst 179 

twenty-four hours. We went over it all very carefully, and 
I talked it over with some of the moneyed men there, and 
the thing was arranged to be put in operation. Note 
what appeared in the Nashville American and which 
will explain itself. Also note what other papers said 
about the two and a half million dollars for the pur- 
pose of organizing and constructing the stock yards, a cold 
storage and fertilizer plant in Nashville. This was five or 
six days afterwards. Of course the Cudahys and their 
associates, who had had this territory in the South, take 
after them, got after me and took out a charter for $2,- 
500,000. They followed me like a serpent everywhere. 
Years ago I went in with Charles North & Co., to construct 
stock yards in Sioux City, Iowa, and the Trust went in there 
after they bought North out. 

Niles & Brothers, about twenty- two or three years ago, 
and some other parties, constructed yards at Yarmouth, 
Texas, and I said to them that it would be a dead sure 
winner. Niles wrote to me, asking me if I "could not get 
him a manager to come out there and help him out. I was 
arranging to go myself and I told them they could get 
Mitchell, who was at that time superintendent of the Kansas 
City yards, and who had been superintendent of the Indian- 
apolis yards until Samuel Rauh was elected President. J. 
W. P. Ijams had been President practically all the time un- 
til they brought on the fight against me and Mitchell, super- 
intendent. They protected me and saw I got the strictly 
higher right and the ones I bought loaded, without stealing. 
As soon as Ijams quit they got rid of Mitchell and he went 
to the Kansas City yards. Then the Trust went to Yar- 
mouth and Niles made a deal with them whereby he was to 



180 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

have a big interest. This is the same Niles who is president 
of the Squire house in Boston, and the Niles, Boston. 

Another damnable thing of the Trust is an agreement 
whereby nothing that was cured in the old-fashioned way 
must be sent South. They must keep a dumping place to 
dump only the process-cured meats in the South. Twenty- 
five years ago there was only about 40 per cent, of the hogs 
slaughtered that could be marketed in less than forty days, 
excepting the lard, the fresh livers and the feet. The bacon, 
hams and the shoulders, when they were not sold fresh, 
would take at least fifty or sixty days to be fully cured. 
Squire, North, the Boston Packing House or any of the Cin- 
cinnati or Louisville houses never marketed anything until 
it was thoroughly cured. Now the Trusts have a process of 
chemicals by which they can cure hams, shoulders or in fact 
any part of the hog in eight to ten days, and they can sell 
all of their products inside of ten days. This was done to 
save interest on the money invested and to turn their money 
often ; also to save storage and insurance in carrying them. 

You understand they are putting nothing but bull meat 
in the large hotels, North and South, which are practically 
incorporated and have an interest in the Beef Trust. 

The bulls are not fed as they were fifteen years ago, but 
are fed on cotton seed hulls, cooked with slop. Years ago 
they had hay for roughness, now they have cotton seed hulls. 
The cotton seed permeates the beef. They pass the orders 
down the line to sell the bulls, They go on slop in July and 
August, and they commence taking off in March, April and 
May, and by the middle of June they have got to have them 
all off, for the still houses close down then. They are fat, 
but they are bull meat just the same, with a cotton seed 



With the Beef Tkust 181 

flavor. In every large hotel I stopped at in the South I 
found this condition since the first of March. I recently 
took a trip West, through Cincinnati, Indiana, St. Louis, 
Kansas City, Chicago and New York, and the bull meat ap- 
peared in all of the best hotels I stopped at, and also on the 
dining cars. While in the South during the winter I found 
the Jersey cow meat largely predominated. At any rate 
there was nothing but cow meat put on any of Flagler's 
tables. Part was Jersey and part was not, and I found 
the same conditions in every other hotel with the exception 
of Gulfport, Miss., and Little Rock, Arkansas. The best 
meal I had while traveling in the South was in East Ten- 
nesee in the mountains on the Tennessee River, where we 
stopped twenty minutes for dinner. The lady had all Ten- 
nessee products, evidently — the eggs, the bacon, the pork, 
etc. I think the meal was 75 cents, and at all the other 
places I had been paying from $1 to $1.50. You under- 
stand I traveled in the South all the time in the daytime. 
This will show you that the conditions of live stock in the 
South must be changed and improved as was done in Den- 
mark. 

To the Southern Senators and members of the House of 
Representatives, I want to serve notice on you that the 
same applies to you this coming election as it did to Wads- 
worth. Your country is an agricultural country, and a 
great deal depends upon your actions in the Senate and the 
House, as to how you all should join hands and help build 
up the South as the Northwest has been built up. In the 
West there were millions of acres that were barren that are 
now fertile, the same as your lands prior to the war, but 
have been abandoned since. Your lands ran be made fertile 



182 Twenty Years in Hell 

if you will permit the people to go into your State without 
interruption, and teach your people " Early to bed and 
early to rise." 

It has been your purpose to keep your colored people in 
slavery, so that you could hold them in subjugation, but all 
that is past and there are new generations coming on. The 
war is all over and there is no use bringing that up. You 
vote for a revenue bill that won't protect the poorer people 
in a way of furnishing raw material for the factories and 
other industries in a small way. You protect your wild 
timber lands in order that you may be able to sell a few 
more trees off the land, lands that nothing else will grow on. 
and poor trees at that, I noticed while traveling in the 
South a great many turpentine camps and timber in the 
sandy parts of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi. 
Louisiana and Arkansas — practically would travel half a 
day and see nothing else. Can you afford to vote for a big 
tariff on lumber to satisfy the already rich lumber dealer 
and make the poor man pay it when they want to build a 
house or a barn on a farm in the South, or even in the North 
or Northwest? Can you afford to vote for tax on refined 
siii>-ar in the interest of the Sugar Trust because you have a 
few districts in your section that are able to produce sugar. 
against the millions that have to consume sugar? I serve 
notice on you that you will get the same dose that Wads- 
worth got, and in the very next election. There is no poli- 
tics with the plain, common people, especially among the 
farmers. Tn my four months, traveling in the South 1 
found that part of the country was riper for the move than 
even this West, that is on Ihe tariff bill. I fully realize that 
many of you have large interests in the South, that you are 



With the Beef Trust 183 

rich and have plenty, and that the poorer people have to 
help furnish a revenue to support your government and to 
help pay your taxes. 

Now there has been a great deal said in the South about 
the colored race. The old saying is, "A nigger will steal, 
and a white man is uncertain/ ' I don't agree with that. 
Take, for instance, the bank's trusty man is mostly a negro ; 
the man who has charge of the keys in the big hotels is often 
a colored man, both North and South. The old slave 
owners had trusty colored men ; in fact there are trusted 
colored men in nearly all business interests. The old col- 
ored woman that nursed the white children, she educated 
them to be honest, as well as educated her own children to be 
honest. It is true that there is a good per cent, of the col- 
ored people that do steal, but not more so than the Dago, the 
Irish, Jews and others. It has not been over a year since 
they wanted to disfranchise the colored men in the South, 
when there are some colored men more able to vote than lots 
of white ones. These are the Democrats. I have got no 
politics myself and I don't want to have any — I just want 
to help the people. 

PROMINENT MEN I HAVE KNOWN. 

Now I want to take up some great men in the light in 
which I see them ; in fact, in the light in which the public 
sees them, and not as they see themselves. There are a 
great many handsome men that live on their looks, and 
think as they are walking down the street or riding in auto- 
mobiles that everybody is looking at them — in fact that is 
generally the case, but what are most of the people thinking 
about them? 



184 Twenty Years in Hell 

Now, first I want to deal with the men I have come in 
contact with in the last forty years, so I will take up what 
is a most important class, the business man. One of the 
greatest men that I have known in the past thirty years in 
building up the Northwest is Archbishop Ireland, moving 
forward and preaching Christ and Him crucified. 

The second is James J. Hill, building a railroad into the 
unknown country. It was a very gigantic undertaking to 
construct the Northern Pacific. After he got it constructed 
he saw the wild animals, the wild horses, the wild cattle, 
the wild sheep, the wild hogs and the wild men. So some 
fifteen or twenty years ago he commenced buying and im- 
porting on the main lines West in Minnesota, the Dakotas, 
Montana and Washington, something like eight hundred 
bulls, all of which were thoroughbred Herefords, Shorthorns 
and Polled Angus of the meat kind. He bought no Jerseys. 
Those are practically the only meat producers. He gave 
them to the farmers and compelled them to use them for 
stock breeding. He bought something like 5,000 male thor- 
oughbred hogs, and something like six or eight thousand 
thoroughbred bucks, all of which were imported largely 
from Canada, as they raised the highest grade sheep there. 
He bought something like six to eight hundred draft horses 
and gave all of them away, stringing them out on the lines 
of his roads. In every case where he gave away this im- 
ported stock he required the recipient to agree to sterilize 
all the male stock they owned and in less than two years he 
had all the hogs and sheep at least half-breeds or thorough- 
breds; in less than five years he had all the cattle, and in 
less than eight years he had all the horses half-breeds or 



With the Beef Trust 185 

thoroughbreds. Now no country in the world can excel the 
section along his line of roads, in its high grade of sheep, 
hogs, cattle and horses. In my mind he is one of the great- 
est benefactors I ever knew, along with John P. Squire, Tim 
Eastman and Richard Webber, an account of whom I have 
given in the previous pages. There is a vast difference be- 
tween a builder up and a tearer down. There is another 
Moses that I think of at this point, and if he lives he will 
raise other sections of the country out of the wilderness. I 
have reference to E. H. Harriman, and if he takes up on 
his lines and duplicates what Hill has done, as I think he 
will, it will be a big money-maker for him. It will take 
some time to get good results from this class of invest- 
ments, yet when the good results come they will continue to 
be money-makers. He has the foresight to see it, and he 
will prove to be a great builder up of the South along the 
line of his roads. 

There is a vast difference between the way Hill and the 
Pennsylvania Company operate their roads. The Penn- 
sylvania practically operates all the lines it controls for the 
sole use and benefit of the Pennsylvania, and no one else. 
Thirty-two years ago when we established our stock yards 
at Indianapolis, we had to give the head officers of the 
Pennsylvania Company $100,000 of our $500,000 worth of 
stock. In the agreement with the Pennsylvania Company 
they were to abandon two stock yards, in Indianapolis, 
which were very good ones, and one at Columbus, Ohio, one 
of the best locations for a stock yard in the country, and it 
would have been one of the best for the farmers of Ohio 
and a part of Indiana, giving them the benefit of a short 



186 Twenty Years in Hell 

haul to market. I understand many of these same high of- 
ficials are yet holding their stock in the Indianapolis yards. 
Of course the "High Priest" is still living, and it is my im- 
pression he thinks he will live always. He was in the 
deal at the time, as he was stock agent for the Pennsyl- 
vania^ Road. 

I regret that I have not the space to mention in this 
brief hundreds of others. None come up to Squire, East- 
man and Webber. If you are careful in reading this brief 
through you will see what I have to say about each one. Do 
not overlook Pinnell and Lockridge. I must also mention 
William Randolph Hearst. His father went West at an 
early day and struck it rich in the gold mines, and was sent 
to the United States Senate by California. In his day he 
was a great power on the Pacific Coast. William has got 
his father skinned to a frazzle. I knew the old Senator and 
I know the young journalist. He is a smarter man than his 
father was. That is an exception to the general rule. 
There are not many smarter men in the country. He em- 
ploys the very best talent and pays the highest salaries on 
his papers. He puts a good deal of fiction in his papers, 
which I do not read, but the people want it. He also prints 
a great deal of solid facts, which I do read. You can not 
lose him. There is another man you can not lose, that is 
Thomas Hisgen, late the candidate of the Independent 
party for President. He is a very able man. He came from 
Indiana. Tom Lawson is another one of those men you can 
not lose. I do not know him personally, but I have read 
with interest what he has written about meats and the Beef 
Trust. He is a very well-informed man on these subjects. 
For one who never (Jealt in meat. 



With the Beef Trust 187 

I also want to say there are great men in labor organiza- 
tions, and in naming the progressive men, no man stands 
higher on the list than John Mitchell. There is no greater 
benefactor to labor or the country than John Mitchell, and- 
he will have a crown when he dies. 

There is a vast difference between Gompers and Mitchell. 
There is a Jew and an Irishman in this. I understand that 
Gompers is a Jew. However, one is a builder up and the 
other a tearer down. 

RICHARD WEBBER'S SIXTIETH BIRTHDAY. 



HE ARRIVES AT THE AGE OF THREE SCORE YEARS. 



DETAILS OF PROFIT DISTRIBUTION PLAN. 



On the 21st of January Mr. Richard Webber arrived at 
the sixtieth milestone in his life's journey. 

He carries his sixty years lightly, and to a stranger looks 
moreJike forty. 

It isn't our intention to write a biography of Mr. Web- 
ber, but we would like to say a few words appertaining to 
the success Mr. Webber has made. 

We know that Mr. Webber became a master butcher in 
1873, when he started in business for his own account in 
partnership with Mr. James W. Sears at 2194 Third avenue. 
Mr. Webber withdrew from this partnership in 1876 and 
continued business at 2134 Third avenue, and in the follow- 
ing year removed to 210 East 120th street, having pur- 
chased at a receiver's sale a business that had been previ- 
ouslv conducted there. 



188 Twenty Years in Hell 

He took a partner, a Mr. Warwick, and increased the 
business by taking the shop adjoining, No. 212. 

In the early part of 1880 the firm Webber & Warwick 
was dissolved and the business divided, Mr. Webber taking 
212 East 120th street. 

Mr. Warwick put his business into a stock company, 
which later had financial difficulties. Eventually on the set- 
tlement of the affairs of the Warwick company its business 
was acquired by Mr. Webber, who then, about the beginning 
of 1882, combined it with his individual business. The 
Harlem packing house was originally the property of Mr. 
Warwick, who started in 1873. 

We make no mention here of many incidents of Mr. 
Webber outside of his strictly business life, as we desire 
to reserve the recording of them until we are able to give a 
good, full biography, which we feel will interest every mem- 
ber of his large business family, and besides, it would be a 
very difficult matter to write all one would like, realizing 
as we do his extreme modesty. 

We have secured some photos of our subject which we 
feel sure will be of interest to our readers. The first shows 
Mr. Webber when he w T as about eighteen years old, and is 
reproduced from a daguerreotype. The next two show him 
at twenty-six and twenty-nine years. The one taken in 
1884 or '85 was used in a set of resolutions which were en- 
grossed and handsomely framed and presented to Mr. Web- 
ber by one hundred and ten employes in 1885. The photo 
taken when he was 48 makes him look older than he appears 
today. The picture depicting Mr. Webber in 1904 shows 
him no different than now. 

Mr. Webber has a modest family — two sons and one 




RICHARD WEBBER. 



With the Beef Tkust 189 

daughter — and one grandson, the child of Mr. Richard 
Webber, Jr. We present a picture of Master Richard Web- 
ber 3d, who is three years and nine months old and who 
from all appearances will be " a chip of the old block. ' ' 

The Profit-Sharing Plan — Everybody a Partner. 

By means of signs placed about the establishment on 
Monday, the 28th inst., Mr. Webber requested the presence 
of all his employes immediately after the closing of the 
store, explaining that he desired to speak upon a plan to 
distribute amongst them a certain percentage of the profits 
of his business. 

The five hundred and odd employes gathered in the 
Third avenue store after business was over for the day, and 
then Mr. Webber said: "I called you together this even- 
ing with the object of saying something to you, but as my 
throat is not right I have deputized my son Richard to ex- 
plain to you a plan which I hope will meet with your ap- 
proval, as it does with mine. ' ' 

After the applause which greeted these remarks had 
died away Mr. Richard Webber, Jr., addressed the assem- 
blage as f ollow T s : 

Upon the card which accompanied Mr. Webber 's gift to 
you a short time ago it was intimated that Mr. Webber had 
a plan of distributing among his employes a portion of .the 
yearly profits instead of the customary week 's salary. 

With the object of announcing to you this plan this 
evening Mr. Webber has called you together. 

In a large business the supreme head cannot oversee 
everything. Consequently minor details are not carried 
out, and that means losses. To prevent these losses it needs 



190 Twenty Years in Hell 

the co-operation of the employes. Now the question is how 
to secure that co-operation. The co-operation upon the part 
of the employes means that they should take some interest, 
and perhaps the best way to secure that interest is to give 
them something to lose or gain. No one has as much in- 
terest in a business as in one's own. 

Now, to secure your interest in his business, Mr. Web- 
ber is going to make his business your own personal busi- 
ness ; in other words, he is going to take you into partner- 
ship. It is his intention to divide 20 per cent, of the net 
profits among his employes. This will take the place of the 
customary semi-yearly distribution of a week's salary. 

This 20 per cent., taking the average profits of the last 
few years, will materially exceed a week's salary. Some of* 
you may remember in a like distribution a number of years 
ago that your share of profits was several times the amount 
of the salary you received each week. 

Mr. Webber wishes it to be strictly understood that this 
sharing of profits is not to be considered as part salary. It 
is a reward. The amount you will receive will of course 
vary at one time from another ; naturally profits fluctuate, 
and will be partly accountable to the amount of interest 
taken by you in the business. Therefore, if an employe 
does not take any interest in the business he must not ex- 
pect to share the profits which his interest ought to have 
helped accrue. 

This action upon JVIr. Webber's part being done with the 
idea of getting your help, it will be at his discretion to dis- 
continue the arrangement should it fail of its object. 

Now, as Mr. Webber's partners in his business, how can 
you help to increase the profits? You must prevent waste 



With the Beef Teust 191 

by yourself and others in time and material. For instance, 
you know that many waste time, and time is money. You 
know that many use more paper than is necessary in wrap- 
ping articles. The paper and twine bill of this establish 
ment reaches weekly over $300. 

You must prevent dishonesty and wilful neglect in 
others. If you feel a man is dishonest or wilfully neglect- 
ful do not try to correct the fault personally — he would 
naturally resent your interference — but report it to your 
superior. This cannot be considered as an underhand trick ; 
remember you are a partner in the business. 

Obey orders of your superiors. This is one of the strong 
points of an organization. When you are told to do some- 
thing do it yourself ; do not turn the job over to some one 
else. 

You must save expenses. One of the greatest items of 
our business is the deliveries. You can save money there. 
As a salesman you can perhaps get a customer to carry a 
small package by asking, "Will you take this with you?" 
That suggests to the customer to take it. When you have 
waited on a customer ask if there is anything else. If there 
is, it means the saving of a check, of extra wrapping paper 
and extra delivery — a saving all around. 

If you are one coming in contact with the trade, don't 
make too many promises. If you do make a promise see 
that it is kept. The customers must not be disappointed. 

If you witness an accident to a customer report it at 
once to some one in authority. There are people unprinci- 
pled enough to take advantage of a slight accident to black- 
mail. Should you have an accident yourself report it. 

Never shirk the blame when you are in the wrong. There 



192 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

is a sign upstairs which reads to the effect that a prompt 
acknowledgment of a fault saves time and money, and tends 
largely to foster good feelings between employer and em- 
ployes. 

You must be loyal to the house. You must always up- 
hold the establishment and those in it. When you ' ' knock ' ' 
the house you are ' ' knocking ' ' yourself. 

You must obey rules and see that others do so. There 
is an object for every rule made. They are necessary for 
the success of every business. You see signs about the 
house prohibiting smoking; why? Because fires are awful. 
We need look back but a few days to recall the awful ca- 
lamity of the Cowperthwait fire, and others of even greater 
magnitude. 

You must use discretion. For instance, if you should 
get a raise in salary it is because you are considered worth 
it. Don't tell others. Your fellow employe might think 
he is entitled to it when he is not. He don't know it, and 
consequently he wants a raise and is dissatisfied when he 
don't get it. Again, but a few days ago one of the boys 
on No. 5 counter declined to sell a customer four pounds of 
breast of mutton because he didn't have just the weight 
handy. The goods chosen weighed four and a quarter 
pounds, and the boy could not see his way clear to make it 
four pounds — very poor discretion ! In this case a quarter 
of a pound of fat cut off would have been no loss. It 
would have made a difference of a cent, and as fat it would 
bring that money. It is a different matter in the case of 
a porterhouse steak or a turkey, where the article must be 
sold as it is. The chances are that the customer did not 
have enough money to pay for more than four pounds. 



With the Beef Trust 193 

The boy would have sent this customer away, actually los- 
ing the sale. Mind you, not intentionally, but because he 
didn't know better. He has not yet learned discretion. 

You have a right to suggest improvements. If your 
suggestions are not carried out do not feel discouraged. 
The head of the house is not able perhaps to use them just 
then. 

You must be in harmony with the house and those about 
you. You are all working for the same head. There may 
be some rivalry among the salesmen for the highest sales or 
the drivers for* the highest number of deliveries, but let this 
rivalry be friendly. 

As salesmen you must treat your trade right. Don't 
discriminate. As drivers, treat your customers right. 
Everybody be polite, courteous and kind. 

As superiors, you must show no partiality to those un- 
der you. You may be kind, yet positive; otherwise you 
lose the respect of those of whom you are in charge. 

To condense things, whatever your position, do just 
what you feel is right. 

Reverting again to Mr. Webber's plan of distribution 
of these profits, the idea is that at the end of June and the 
end of December 20 per cent, of the net profits of the pre- 
ceding six months will be divided among those who have 
been in the employ of Mr. Webber for one year or more, 
the division being based on the amount of salary you receive 
in that six months. Six months' business cannot be closed 
up in a few days, and therefore this distribution must not 
be expected at the immediate conclusion of each six months, 
but as soon after as is possible. 



[13] 



194 Twenty Years in Hell 

If there is any point you do not understand say so, so it 
may be explained. If you have any questions to ask we 
would be happy to have you ask them. 

Death of Richard Webber. 

(From the National Provisioner, Oct. 17, 1908.) 

Another bulwark of the local meat trade has passed into 
the great beyond. Following close on the death of Charles 
Weisbecker, the big Harlem butcher, the trade and the peo- 
ple at large were greatly shocked to leaim of the death of 
Richard Webber, which occurred on October 7 on board the 
steamer St. Louis, on which he was returning after .a tour 
of Europe. The news was received by wireless and gave 
the bare facts that Mr. Webber had died of heart disease on 
that day. On the arrival of the steamer on Saturday it 
was learned that Mr. Webber had died suddenly at 7 :45 
p. m. while seemingly the picture of health, having been 
much benefited by his stay abroad. With his passing the 
trade loses not only the largest retailer in the world, but a 
man who has made his personality and business ability felt 
all over the country. Through his large business, known 
as the Harlem Packing House, at 120th street and Third 
avenue, through his membership in the New York Produce 
Exchange, the Poultry and Game Trade Association, the 
American Meat Packers' Association, his affiliations with 
the local meat trade societies, through his poultry and pack- 
ing house in Sioux City, la., and his small stock slaughter 
bouse in Buffalo, N. Y., he had met and had dealings with 
so many people that his name was extremely familiar in the 
trade. 



With the Beef Trust 195 

Mr. Webber was 61 years of age. having been born at 
Chulmleigh, Devonshire, England, January 21, 1847. It 
is on record that his father was considered the best judge 
of cattle in his day in the west of England when beef was 
bought on the hoof by the head instead of by the pound as 
nowadays. He left home when 15 years of age and went to 
Exeter, the nearest big city, remaining there until 1863, 
when he went to London. In 1868 he emigrated to Canada, 
and after remaining in Montreal a short while he went to 
Chicago. In 1870 he came to New York and accepted a 
position as journeyman butcher and salesman for David 
Warwick at 118th street and Third avenue. In 1873 he 
started in business for himself, operating a combined wagon 
and store pork trade, later entering into partnership with 
James W. Sears at 2194 Third avenue. Mr. Webber with- 
drew from this partnership in 1876 and continued business 
himself at 2134 Third avenue, and the following year re- 
moved to 210 East 120th street, the present headquarters. 

The history of the growth of Mr. Webber's business is 
typical of the tireless energy and the foresight of the man. 
By square dealing he endeared himself to his patrons until 
he became the largest retail butcher in the w r orld, employ- 
ing some 500 persons and occupying fifteen city lots with 
his plant. 

Besides his business Mr. Webber devoted considerable 
of his attention to financial, educational and charitable in- 
stitutions. He was trustee of the Harlem Savings Bank, 
and in October, 1907, during the run on that institution 
guaranteed the accounts of employes and others, thereby 
preventing a serious panic. He contributed largely in a 
financial way to the advancement of art and education in 



196 Twenty Years in Hell 

New York city, although seeking no publicity whatever in 
these donations. 

He was a pioneer educator along the lines of teaching 
housewives the purchasing of and cutting of meats. When 
the teachers' college opened its domestic science department 
Mr. Webber and four of his men took possession of one of 
the college halls at the invitation of the faculty and set up 
a butcher shop complete in every detail. He taught the 
girl students all about meats, explaining the mysteries of 
steaks, chops, chuck steak and stew. Similar lectures were 
given the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. During the hard 
times of 1893-94 he established a soup kitchen in his store 
for the needy. He was also responsible for the foundation 
of the Richard Webber Mutual Benefit Society, the organi- 
zation of the employes of the house and the employes' profit 
sharing plan, which was put into effect in January, 1907. 
The esteem and reverence with which he was held in the 
employes' estimation is evidenced by the various gifts and 
testimonials which have been presented to him. 

The funeral was held on Monday morning and was one 
of the largest held in Harlem in many years. The services 
were held in Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in East 
118th street, of which the deceased was treasurer. The 
meat trade was represented by a full attendance, who came 
to pay their last respects to their fellow craftsman. Be- 
sides being a member of many societies, which were repre- 
sented at the funeral, Mr. Webber was a philanthropist, and 
many of the poor whom he had helped went to the church 
to pay their last respects. There were also present the em- 
ployes of Mr. Webber's business establishment, who marched 
to the residence at 187 Madison avenue and from there to 



With the Beef Trust 197 

the church. Each carried a flower, and as he passed the 
coffin placed it on it. There were four carriages of large 
floral pieces. The burial was in Mount Kisco Cemetery. 

Mr. Webber leaves a widow, a daughter and two sons, 
Richard, Jr., and William, who were associated with their 
father in the business. 

MEAT CUTTING DEMONSTRATION. 

On Wednesday, April 28, 1909, at 2 p. m., at our Tre- 
mont branch, 177th street and Webster avenue, Bronx, we 
will give a meat cutting demonstration and short talk simi- 
lar to those given by us at various times before Teachers' 
College of New York, Horace Mann School of New York, 
Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, pure food show, Grand Cen- 
tral Palace (by N. Y. Household Economic Association), 
etc., etc. 

Mr. Theodore Carlewitz, manager of the Tremont 
branch, a practical meat man of twenty-four years' experi- 
ence, in addition to giving a great amount of other valuable 
information will explain the various uses of the different 
cuts of meat, which knowledge cannot fail to assist the pur- 
chaser in the intelligent and economical selection of their 
meat requirements. 

Cards of admission may be had upon application to the 
Tremont branch either by mail, telephone or in person. In 
order to avoid confusion each card of admission will be 
numbered according to the seat. 

Richard Webber, Tremont Branch, 
177th street and Webster avenue, Bronx. 



198 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

STATESMEN, POLITICIANS, ETC. 

Now I want to turn to another class of men whom I 
have been closely allied with for the last forty years — that 
is, those who are known as statesmen, politicians, etc. The 
best politician and statesman I ever knew in my time was 
Oliver P. Morton, late Governor of Indiana, He died 
worth less than $20,000 after being the Governor of Indiana 
and senator of the United States. He knew a smart man 
when he saw one, and would take no one around with him 
except those who would obey his orders. In any organi- 
zation, political or business, if one does not obey the orders 
of the superior you cannot get good results. Note what 
Richard Webber had to say on this. He was a past master 
on discipline, the same as Squire and Eastman. "Wilson 
I think was the best I ever knew in making a balance sheet 
and having it out on time, which is the most important 
thing in life if you have any anticipation of succeeding. 
Let me cite you Ham Conner, who educated me politically. 
His father settled in Hamilton county near Strawtown in 
1806, coming from Connersville, Indiana. Morton knew 
Ham — he was a smart one when a boy. He brought him 
to IndianapoJis and made him postmaster during the war, 
and made him chairman of the Republican state committee 
during a critical time when he was dealing with what was 
known as the Butternuts in Indiana. 

Now the next prominent man is Tom Piatt. I knew 
him well. I met him first in the Chicago convention in 
1880 when 1 w;is helping to hold up the 306 with Fred 
Grant. Conkling, John C. New and Logan. Fred Granl 
slept al tiie headquarters nil the time. We were there a 



With the Beef Trust 199 

week before the convention and remained until the finish. 
Tom had the details all right; he knew how to do all right, 
and he was always able to furnish the price, which was a 
great thing in the grime of politics. He was a sure early to 
rise man, but some nights he did not go to bed at all unless 
he had finished all his work. Every year when politics 
were raging in New York I would probably be there every 
few months. Tom would go to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, 
as that was the Republican headquarters and where all the 
political business was done, and live there until the cam- 
paign closed. I would get up and go to breakfast at six 
o'clock in the morning. I had to see my customers early, 
but I always found Piatt waiting for his breakfast, looking 
over a big batch of letters which had to be answered. Also 
during the Harrison term in Washington I would go to 
breakfast at six, and I would always find Piatt there read- 
ing his mail. He wx>uld say: "Rhody, these are just a 
few (he would probably have fifty letters) that my secre- 
tary has picked out, of importance, that must be answered 
today, out of four, five or ten baskets full." Tom would 
always answer all the letters he got from his constituents, 
keeping up with the little precinct men, as well as the ward 
men, the county men and the state men, and he never made 
a promise to anyone that he did not keep. He always 
wanted honest men around him, and if they were not honest 
with him he would soon put others in their places. He was 
a wonderful man in ability, but he always had an eye open 
to the interest of his big corporation, the express company, 
of which he was president. This class of men are very 
dangerous to the plain, common working people, that is, to 
have them in the United States Senate. There is no ques- 



200 Twenty Years in Hell 

lion but what the interest of their corporation is nearer and 
dearer to them than the common, plain people when it 
comes to voting on legislation. I might mention here a 
great many others in the same class. 

There are many mushroom politicians who grow up in 
a night and come in on the tide, so to speak ; such, unfortu- 
nately, we have had in Indiana since '96, coming to Wash- 
ington, who think they can run the government, and that 
they have a lifetime job on their $5,000 a year. A congress- 
man cannot live on $5,000 a year and live honestly. I have 
not been able to live on $5,000 a year in forty-five years, 
although I was forty years old before I married and had a 
family. There has been a new era in Indiana since '96 
with the statesmen. Up to that time, commencing with 
Morton, Hendricks, McDonald, Voorhees, Turpie and Har- 
rison, no man from Indiana who served in the United States 
Senate died with accumulated wealth of over $100,000 at 
the time of his death, with the possible exception of Harri- 
son. He received $100,000 after he left the presidential 
office. Before he went to the President's office he was not 
worth $100,000 after practicing law for many years. He 
was an honest man to his clients. I will never forget, 
I came on here after Harrison was senator and he made me 
go home with him for dinner. I told him that there had 
been twenty lobbyists after me after they had seen us sit- 
ting together talking in the cloak room of the Senate — they 
were all warming up to me. (There was an important bill 
they were trying to get through — some canal to cut across 
from Baltimore into the ocean.) "Yes." he said, "there 
are all kinds of men put up against me on that, and they 
are feeling all around to know what will be done." I said: 



With the Beef Trust 201 

"I think I can handle them. They are warming up to me 
and they think that they can handle you through me. They 
think I am a friend of yours." He said: "I have lived 
too long for anybody to handle me, and I know you are 
too smart to be handled." There were any number of 
lobbyists — some big ones. They would take me driving, 
show me the town, take me to the theater, we would go out 
and have a drink, etc. They were a clever set of men. I 
realized they were trying to string me, but I could not be 
strung. Some evenings we would get into a little game of 
poker. There is nothing that brightens up a man's wits 
more than a game of poker and hearts, that is, when he is 
playing with gentlemen and they can afford to lose the 
money. I would tell Harrison how they were trying to do 
the business. He would laugh and say that they would 
never handle him. 

Now there is another class of politicians that get to be 
United State? senators or congressmen on their looks and 
general appearances. . That is a very far-reaching thing in 
the country. Let me cite to you a case of a man I knew 
well for more than thirty or thirty-five years — that is, Sen- 
ator Scott of West Virginia. He weighs about 250 pounds, 
has a doll baby face, always looking wise. He always at- 
tended the Republican national conventions, sometimes as 
a delegate, and about thirty years ago he became chairman 
of the national committee from West Virginia. He would 
come to a national convention with three, four and five 
suits of clothes, and would change his suits at least three 
or four times every day. He never went to dinner in the 
evening without being in full dress, and always picked a 
time to come in when the dining room was full, so the peo- 



202 Twenty Years in Hell 

pie would look at the big, handsome man with the doll baby 
face. As I recollect it, he had at one time a plaid suit of 
clothes. I think it was red and green or green and white. 
I will never forget what John New told me one time. He 
said: " There is the greatest lot of shucks with the small- 
est nubbin in it I ever saw. Why, there is enough shucks 
on it to make a bed mattress, and there cannot be over three 
grains of corn on the nubbin. " 

Scott of course was a delegate, but. we would not let 
him within four rooms of the inside room, because he would 
be giving it all away, that is, tell what was going on. In 
fact, he would give it away while he was dressing for din- 
ner. 

Another was Conkling. He was always a well dressed 
man. When he came to the conventions he wore a plain, 
nice working suit. I never saw Tom Piatt at a convention 
only in working clothes. Warmouth of Louisiana, General 
Powell Clayton of Arkansas, Mat Quay of Pennsylvania, 
H. Clay Evans of Tennessee, also Colonel Wills of Nash- 
ville, Tennessee, and Tom Piatt of New York — all these 
men came to the conventions with a grip of underclothes 
and a few shirts to work in. They came to work, evidently, 
but Scott always brought about two trunks and a valet and 
a manicurist — he carried them in stock. He is what is 
said as being "all sound and no sense,' 7 looking at himself, 
but not seeing how other people regarded him. One time 
I asked him how my friend Schenk was. He said: "Who 
is Schenk?" 1 told him Schenk the butcher. I said: 
Why, he is the greatest man in Wheeling. He is one of the 
biggesl butchers in fix* South. He built a four-story build- 
ing covering about 100 feel Front and 150 feet deep just 



With the Beef Trust 203 

half a square from the Tavern, the old hotel where Scott 
boarded. Of course when I went to see Schenk I always 
warmed up to Scott, yet I would have to introduce myself 
to him every time, tell him who I was and what I was. He 
does not know anything about the blue grass in West Vir- 
ginia or the vast progress that has been made in that State 
in the last thirty years, but he does know all about the big 
corporations. He is a cuckoo to vote on this tariff bill. He 
will protect the farmers, as we say in the West, "in a pig's 
eye." There is another thing I want to call your attention 
to about him. There was a man near Strawtown who had 
a spotted stallion. He would bring him in on election days 
to show him off. That was when I was a boy, and I thought 
he was the prettiest thing I ever saw. Scott very much re- 
minds me of the spotted stallion at Strawtown that all of 
us children got stuck on, and comparatively speaking I 
think all of the senators are attracted by Scott's show. 

Chauncey Depew is another senator that is equal to 
Scott of West Virginia. He even takes more trunks than 
Scott when he goes to the national* conventions. He was 
once a very handsome man, but he is wearing a little now. 
He never knew much what was going on, but he did what- 
ever Tom Piatt said. At the convention in 1888 Levi P. 
Morton was a candidate at that time from New York. Obe 
Wheeler was his delegate from his district. He was five 
or six years younger than T, yet we were very close friends. 
Obe Wheeler was a politician in Morton's district, and I 
felt sure that I could land Obe when we got to a certain 
point and then we could turn to Harrison. Obe's father 
was the oldest commission man in Jersey City and New 
York, and sold stock for me more than forty years ago. 



204 Twenty Years in Hell 

Of course 1 agreed to turn to Morton if things were going 
his way ; anything to beat John Sherman. 

At this time Chauncey Depew did not know anything 
about Obe and he did not know anything about me. I no- 
ticed at the last convention Chauncey had his wife with 
him, and she was a handsome woman. She wore one of 
those new fashioned divided skirt dresses, and Chauncey 
would walk about ten feet in front of her so he could show 
both himself and her off. I saw him and spoke to him, but 
he said, "Excuse me please: I will see you later." You 
see, he was on dress parade, and he was also showing off 
his wife's dress. I could see from her knee down. After 
he got through going through all the halls of the Audi- 
torium on this dress parade then he went and changed his 
clothes and said that he would now talk to me. We had a 
talk. He is always looking at himself and seeing that 
everybody saw him, the same as Senator Scott. 

Note, an interview which appeared in the Indianapolis 
Journal under date of October 6, 1896, and which will ex- 
plain itself. It was at a time when I was making a few 
speeches. The excitement was very high in Indiana, and 
nearly all the big orators were called into the State. It ap- 
plies to a big man in a little town. In my mind it is a very 
fair application and is applied to a czar, Senator Aldrich, 
as a big man in a little town. I was once a very big man at 
Strawtown. In 1867 or 1868 I had within a mile and a half 
of Strawtown a thousand hogs on feed at one time in one 
wood pasture. In less than a mile and a half of the same 
place I had fifteen hundred sheep on feed. I had a play- 
mate by the name of Dave Sperry, who was killed in Mc- 
Cook's raid around Atlanta. He was my bunk mate in the 



With the Beef Tkust 205 

war. We lived on adjoining farms. John Sperry, elder 
brother of Dave, served in the 75th Indiana. He came home 
and went to work on the farm. I knew he was home and 
that he was an honest man, and I said: "John, go down 
into Hancock County; they are giving hogs away down 
there. Buy five hundred or a thousand, and also go up 
the river and buy three or four thousand bushels of corn." 
He said : ' ' Rhody, I 've got no money. ' ' I told him I could 
get all the money I wanted, and knew he and his family 
were all honest (four of them served in the war) , and if he 
made anything on them I wanted half the profits, and if not, 
I would shoulder the loss. John made as much as from 
$1,000 to $2,000 at that time, and made enough to go to 
Kansas and buy a farm. He owns possibly a thousand 
acres there now^ and is president of a "bank at Thayer, Kan- 
sas. Besides that I had a number of smaller feeders to 
whom I furnished money. They had tw 7 o or three hundred 
hogs each, feeding, and at the same time I was a partner 
with James Flanders feeding about six hundred mules, be- 
sides being a partner with Harmon Minter in a big store 
in Strawtow T n. I was a big man in a little town, as I used 
to go to New York every few weeks, and when I got back 
after selling a train load or tw T o of stock I was the whole 
thing at Strawtown. 

Providence, R. I., has had a United States senator, Al- 
drich for something like thirty years. I know him by sight 
well, but he does not seem to know me. He is the only Repub- 
lican senator who has been in the Senate for twenty-five 
years that I don't know personally and intimately. I met 
him some three or four w^eeks ago, about inauguration time, 
in the new office building at the Capitol. I shook hands wdth 



206 Twenty Years in Hell 

him and he did not seem to know who I was. I asked him 
how my friend Mason Avas — was he living or dead? He 
said, "What Mason ?" I said, "I. B. Mason. " He said, 
"I believe I forget him/' I said, "O, you know Mason. 
He has been voting for you for senator ; he has been a mem- 
ber of the legislature in Rhode Island several times. ' ' He 
said he believed he was living, and I told him to give him 
my regards. When Mr. and Mrs. Mason were here in Wash- 
ington during Harrison's term — I think it might have been 
the time of the inauguration — I took them and introduced 
them to President and Mrs. Harrison. 

If Aldrich will read this interview and also my speech 
with Charlie Landis at Jimtown he may have some knowl- 
edge of the stock business. Most of the politicians in the 
West have been stock men in their time ; in fact, a great 
many big men have weighed stock in the yards. In fact, 
most of the county officers and statesmen holding offices in 
the West have become acquainted with the farmers while 
buying stock, and then have run for county offices and also 
for state offices. "Baby" McKee's father, Robert, weighed 
stock for something like two years. He was a good weigh- 
master. Of course everybody knows who "Baby" McKee 
was. Also Joe Fanning, who is now Belmont's private sec- 
retary or New York political manager, and the best Demo- 
cratic politician Indiana produced in twenty years. Joe 
has always been my personal friend. He was known in the 
stock yards as the billing clerk, and has billed out as many 
as two or three train loads a day for me. Also United 
States Senator McPherson was a chief Lieutenant of the high 
priest ; in fact, he lived in New Jersey and had one com- 
mission firm in Jersey City a1 the time he and the high 
priest organized the pool in the stock exchange. 



With the Beef Trust 207 

As I have stated above, when they got into politics they 
would buy stock in the country and then run for office. 
That was my long suit in Indiana in the state conventions. 
When the people brought their stock into the yards, Demo- 
crat or Republican, I had them to vote for my Democratic 
friend, if a Democrat, and for my Republican friend, if a 
Republican. Consequently, I had what might be called a 
strong pull. I don 't think I ever had my slate broken either 
in a Democratic or a Republican state convention. 

Later on, in a large book I am going to prepare and have 
issued in December, I will take this matter up more fully 
with the individuals connected with the beef trusts. There 
are more of them living than I thought there were, but in 
the short time I have had to prepare this — only had four 
days for the first brief and scarcely three weeks to prepare 
this — will not permit me to get any more letters to sub- 
stantiate who I am and what I have done. There are many 
living now I find in New England, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Illi- 
nois that are from seventy-five to ninety-two years old. I 
refer to those with whom I have done business. 

The Czar could not carry a precinct in any ward any- 
where in the West. The only long suit he had was he knows 
the game of politics, he is not afraid, and he has got the 
price and uses it. That is a strong combination. 

I want to call your attention to an Indiana politician, 
the mushroom politician, Jack Gowdy. The one that fell 
in the last battle. He has been consul general to Paris 
for eight years. He has been in politics ever since he left 
the army. He was very unfortunate in getting wounded 
in the leg, which made him lame. He has held every office 
known in Rush county, in fact, he has never been out of 



208 Twenty Years in Hell 

office since the war with the exception of the time he was 
chairman of the state committee. He was a great pretended 
friend of General Harrison. In 1900 he was made chair- 
man of the committee. In 1892 he apparently wanted Har- 
rison nominated, but in '96 he betrayed his maker and 
turned on Harrison and helped to defeat him at a time 
when he was chairman of the committee. This was a deal 
made by Senator Fairbanks, who had never been for Harri- 
son. If he had been loyal to Harrison he would probably 
have received the third nomination and been elected, but 
when Gowdy betrayed him Harrison wrote a letter declin- 
ing the nomination. I never spoke to Gowdy after this 
until he returned from Paris. Up to this time he did not 
think he would have any trouble in carrying Indiana. This 
was the time when Gowdy turned on Harrison and beat 
Nebeker, the United States treasurer, for chairman of the 
committee. I told Harrison then that the only way to 
Garry Indiana was with the regular number of delegates to 
elect Nebeker; but as it turned out, three or four of the 
committeemen betrayed us after we had elected them, all 
of whom were given fat offices afterwards. Gowdy has 
been in office until he has become independent. Some say 
that he is worth a million; he owns a thousand acres of 
land. He has only one daughter. Sh@ is about forty to 
forty-five years old. She married a consul general to Chile. 
He has no heirs and no prospect of any. He ought to pay 
an inheritance tax. This is what brought about the great 
change in Indiana. There are hundreds of people in In- 
diana that should have held offices, but as I have said, Gow- 
dy and all hife relatives have been in office ever since the 
war. Later the Landis family came to Indiana, and they 



With the Beef Teust 209 

thought there was nobody quite so important as the Landis 
family. We had four Landises to come from Ohio, all of 
whom have been in office and all of them are my personal 
friends, and they have about fifty relatives in office. All 
this was discussed in the campaign and had all to do with 
the beating of their friend Watson and made the majority 
for Taft small. The politicians of the last ten or twelve 
years have come in with the tide, and they have never 
realized that the tide ever goes out. They are all out now, 
find we have only one old Republican now in Congress, and 
he has been fighting the Beef Trust and in favor of the 
pure food law, and this shows the difference between his 
success and the failure of Wadsworth. 

Note another thing. I have been stopping in Wash- 
ington for a month. I get up at six o'clock in the morn- 
ing, and I can't buy a newspaper or see anybody on the 
streets until after seven, and not many before seven-thirty. 
President Roosevelt made a great mistake, to my mind, 
when he made employes work a half hour longer. He 
should have taken off half an hour and put the government 
officials to work at seven and let them quit at three. Then 
they would have been able to go to all of the baseball games 
and would have gotten through with all their work in the 
cool of the day and when they have more vitality. I was 
generally through with my work by noon and able to go 
to baseball in the afternoon. Of course the government 
employes would like to go to baseball, and if you put them 
to work early then they would have plenty of time. This 
was established by the Southerners. The slave holders 
never got up early, but they generally had the slaves up 
early. 

[14] 



210 Twenty Years in Hell 

For what I have thus far said, I may fall at the hand 
of an assassin but I won't fall at the hands of these con- 
spirators. An anarchist is a gentleman beside them. 

A WORD FOR THE SOLDIERS. 

Note, this is another thing that has been very much 
neglected, that is, service pension. I served four years, 
and am blind in one eye, and yet I get a pension of only 
$12 per month, and this for age. My brother, James K., 
three years older than I am, just recently died while I was 
in the South. James K. was one of the best soldiers I ever 
knew. We both served in the same company and came 
home with the company after serving four years. He was 
always in the thickest of the fight and was taken prisoner 
at Stone River, where our regiment lost over 300 men. He 
was taken to Libby prison, where he got the smallpox. His 
eyes were always weak after that, and last year he was 
practically blind. He went to Red Rock, Iowa, after the 
close of the war and owned as much as a thousand acres 
of land there He prospered there, but he got the Chicago 
craze, went there and sold one farm after another until 
all were gone, and died a poor man. He was getting a $12 
pension on his age. Now we had what was known as the 
Persimmon Brigade through Indiana. It was a three 
months brigade. They got in and around East Tennessee 
guarding railroads while Sherman was in Atlanta. They 
were the whole push for a while so far as army records 
were concerned. Many of them got a pension of from $15 
to $30. There are a great many old veterans that served in 
the war. A veteran, as I understand it, is a soldier that 
has served a long time. You must remember that these 
old veterans have a great many sons and sons-in-law, and 



Wjth the Beef Trust 211 

you can't spit on # the old man without some of them taking 
it up. 

While traveling the other day in 'Virginia I met an old 
soldier just my age, born in the same month. He has one 
wooden leg. I saw he had a Confederate button on and I 
bad on a Grand Army button. We commenced shaking 
hands, and I asked him where he got that leg torn off, and 
he said in front of Widow Glenn's house, Chickamauga, 
about noon. He belonged to Longstreet's corps. I told 
him I expect I shot it off. He saw that I am blind in one 
eye. and lie says I expect I shot your eye out. I asked 
him how much pension he was getting. He said $4. I told 
him that I was getting $12, and I was going to see if I 
could not get him more. I told him he especially ought to 
have more than that at his age, that he was an old veteran. 
Joe Billheimer, first cousin of the Indiana state auditor, 
was shot in the right eye and fell dead. He was my left 
hand man, and I would do as much for my new Confederate 
friend as I would have done for Billheimer. President 
Harrison and I discussed this matter several times, and he 
said it would come eventually. He did not know whether 
he was for or against the government then, but he did know^ 
he was fighting for a home, and that is why the general 
government ought to take the burden off the states. I be- 
lieve that every loyal Union soldier will agree to this. I 
have property in the South and am taxed to pay the state 
pension, while the Confederate soldier that has moved 
North is not taxed for it. There is a general feeling be- 
tween soldiers, and I feel that he ought to be getting more. 
The war is over, so why carry on these prejudices any 
longer. Thev have been carried on too long now. 



212 Twenty Years in Hell 

letters on the trusts. 

Indianapolis, Ind., April 4, 1906. 
Attorney-General Wm. H. Moody, Washington, D. C: 

My Dear Sir — I want to congratulate yon on your speech 
before Judge Humphrey in Chicago. While it may be 
late to do it, I want to say that I think I understand your 
position, and I think you understand it; against the pack- 
ers' combination in Chicago, yet there are things that you 
are not as familiar with, possibly, as I am. 

I rode with Nelson Morris, the head of the Nelson Mor- 
ris firm, through Indiana more than forty years ago, buy- 
ing stock; I saw the father of the young Chicago Swifts 
keeping butcher shop in New England thirty years ago, and 
I know that the real Swift is E. C. Swift, and always has 
been, in Boston, and that where there were ten to twenty 
separate packing houses in New England twenty years ago, 
they are all owned now by the Swifts, while they are all 
running under their original names. 

The Chicago combination is not a marker beside the 
combination which Ave have here in Indianapolis. Forty 
years ago Kingan & Co. started a packing house here, or- 
ganized later on at Belfast, Ireland, located them about 
a half mile of a railroad, known as the White River Val- 
ley Railroad; crushed out and later took in a packing 
house known as the Moore Packing Company, located on 
the stock yards company's ground; crushed out and took 
in another packing house, known as the Coffin-Fletcher 
Company, which was a strong competitor thirty or forty 
years ago, which is now located on the stock yards ground, 
and is running the two of them under the original names. 



With the Beef Trust 213 

The old Fletcher, who is dead, was an uncle of Jesse Over- 
street, congressman, and the young Fletcher is a first cousin 
of his, and is getting $1,500 a year salary as president of the 
Coffin-Fletcher Company, in the packing house that his 
father once owned and operated before it was crushed out. 

Overstreet is so busily engaged in other matters that 
he has no knowledge of these facts; Senator Beveridge is 
so busily engaged getting his Western territories made into 
States, and Vice-President Fairbanks is so busily engaged 
getting the nomination for President, and they have got a 
district attorney here that is so busily engaged as a political 
boss, who is a ward-heeler, that none of them know of this 
combination going on here in Indianapolis. Kingan & Co. 
owned a few years ago the Reed Bros. Packing Company, in 
Kansas City, which burned down a few years ago, and two 
of the Reed brothers ran away after being indicted by 
the United States grand jury for violation of the interstate 
commerce law, and stayed in Europe several years to evade 
the penitentiary. One of them is here now. 

Kingans not only control the packing houses here, but 
they control the stock yards, which sell 20,000 bushels of 
corn for every 10,000 bushels they buy (and the books will 
show it) by giving short weights; buy one hundred tons 
of hay and sell three hundred tons, giving about 30 pounds 
to the 100. These are facts which I will substantiate by 
their own books. 

There can be a bigger exposure made by showing the 
manner in which the stock yards company and the Kingan 
packing house are operating in Indianapolis, taking the 
products of the farmers from the larger part of Indiana 
and central Illinois, some from Ohio and some from Ken- 



214 Twenty Years in Hell 

tucky. The stock yards common stock a few years ago was 
worth 60 cents. It is now worth $1.70. They have put out 
a million dollars common and pay the dividends by short 
weights and exorbitant charges. Kingans bill all of their 
products out on the White River Valley Railroad, which is 
only a switch running to their packing house, and issue 
their own bills of lading, and, if I understand it right, they 
charge about 15 to 20 per cent, of the seaboard rate as the 
originating road. 

Kingans are probably slaughtering more hogs than any 
one large house in the country, in their packing house here, 
in addition to their Moore and Coffin-Fletcher packing 
houses here. I can see their wagons drive across the street 
from my office and sell meat to a grocer, and a few minutes 
later I see the Moore wagon and later the Coffin-Fletcher 
wagon, all of the stuff coming out of the same refrigerator. 

Of course, I am what is known as a dead one. I give you 
as reference, Chief Justice of the Court of Claims, Stanton 
J. Peele, Congressman Alexander from Buffalo, W. W. 
Dudley. They knew me when I was a live One. 

The stock yards company charge 7 cents per head, what 
is known as yardage, for weighing hogs, 5 cents for sheep, 
and 20 cents for cattle, which is exorbitant. They have 
nothing but a few sheds and the ground. The original cost 
was less than $500,000 for the Belt Railroad and the stock 
yards, ;:: d they have leased the Belt Railroad for a term of 
999 years to the Union Railway Company, which Judge 
Baker holds was a sale. 

It would seem that there might be something done in the 
way of regulating the charges in all of the stock yards. 
Illinois lnis two, the largest and the second Largest stock 



With the Beef Trust 215 

yards in the country. The stock yards here have always 
been able to lobby the legislature, and the same in Illinois, 
and they manipulate so that they pay taxes on less than 
$150,000, and pay dividends on something like $3,000,000. 
Tours very truly, 

R. R. SHIEL. 
P. S. — Since dictating this letter some days ago, I see 
that E. C. Swift has died. He was the financier of the 
Swift company. Thirty years ago he was a poor mail. I 
see he left only $10,000,000. Had he lived twenty years 
longer and had no obstacles put in his way, he would have 
owned practically the United States. 

R. R. SHIEL. 



Indianapolis, Ind., April, 1906. 
Gov . Charles R. Deneen, Springfield, III. : 

My Dear Sir — I see that you are calling an extra ses- 
sion of the legislature on a very important matter, a pri- 
mary election. I have been in politics for more than forty 
years, and I understand the importance of having an hon- 
est primary. 

To my mind there is a matter of vast deal more impor- 
tance to the farmers of Illinois which needs a special legis- 
lation, and that is a legislation of the stock yards question. 
You have the largest stock yards in the world, in Chicago, 
in your State, and also, almost the second largest in the 
world, at East St. Louis, in your State. They are collecting 
8 cents per head off of the farmers' hogs, 25 cents off of his 
cattle, 6 cents off of his sheep and 50 cents to $1 off of his 
horses. They sell the corn in these yards to the farmers at 
about 200 per cent, profit, and they sell the hay at more 



216 Twenty Years in Hell 

than 300 per cent, profit. They employ men at very low 
salaries. Stock yards have nothing but ground, and a few 
sheds with an exchange building, all cheaply constructed. 
They pay dividends on millions upon millions of watered 
stock — yes, thin water, if it is properly looked after by the 
powers. 

You can properly take this up in your State, as you 
have larger stock yards than any of the other States. If it 
is not taken up in your State it will be taken up in some 
other State, and possibly in Washington. A special session 
of the legislature called on this question would be in keep- 
ing with the popular sentiment throughout the country, and 
there is nothing to my mind which would render greater 
service to the farmer, and would be as far-reaching — yes, 
farther reaching than any primary legislation. 

You knew me fifteen or twenty years ago, I know you 
now. I give you as reference Leonard Small, who is treas- 
urer of your state, and I own the stock yards on his farm at 
Kankakee. I could give you also Senator Cullom, as I have 
spoken on the same platform with him, time and again, 
more than twenty years ago. He was once a chief lieuten- 
ant of mine at the Minneapolis convention. 

I write this letter in confidence. You can take this up 
with your friend, Len Small, and he will tell you who I am. 
They are driving me out of your state with the stock yards 
I have had leased at Kankakee, and the big stock yards are 
the ones who are doing it. I am responsible for any charge 
I make. At Kankakee I furnish yardage, commission and 
feed for less than one-fourth charged at Chicago, giving 
full measure of corn or hay. 

Stock yards can be operated with a big profit on the cost 



With the Beef Trust 217 

at 3 cents yardage on hogs, 6 or 8 cents on cattle, 2 cents on 
sheep, and 20 cents on horses, and the feed can be furnished 
at 25 to 30 per cent profit. I understand that the Chicago 
yards are owned largely by an English syndicate. That, 
however, you can look into and get the desired information. 
I also think I fully understand how the legislature has been 
handled in your State, and also in this State, on this stock 
yards proposition. 

Yours very truly, 

R. R. SHIBL. 



Indianapolis, Ind., June 7, 1906. 
Hon. E. D. Crumpacker, Congressman, Washington, D. C. : 

My Dear Sir — Your letter of the 5th at hand, and the 
contents of the same noted. I fully agree with you on the 
importance of the right kind of a bill — one that will hold 
good against the packers. 

There is not one-half of one per cent, of the product in 
Indiana, or Illinois, but what make wholesome food if they 
are fed sufficiently. But the old dairies and what is known 
as canners, picked up over the country, should not be per- 
mitted to be sold after they are slaughtered and mixed in, 
then adulterated to make them taste good, and canned, to 
break down the price of the honest producers of the me- 
dium and high grade stock. 

I have, beyond a doubt, handled $100,000,000 of the 
farm products for, it is safe to say, one hundred and fifty 
different butchers, from Portland, Me., to Richmond, Va., 
in the coast towns; always buying the best grades, never 
buying what is known as the low grades. I have bought 



218 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

as high as $65,000 stock in a day for Nelson Morris. I have 
bought for practically all of the towns in New England, 
and all of the packers and butchers, and today there is but 
one packing house in New England, and that is the Swift 
house. All have been absorbed, either by killing them off, or 
by buying them and putting them out of business. The last 
one, a sausage maker at Springfield, who made high grade 
sausage, gave them all kinds of trouble, and they gave him 
an enormous price to get him out of the way, so that he 
wouldn 't be a competitor. 

If you make an argument, will you please put the ques- 
tion, "What is refined lard?" Refined lard is the white 
grease that they get out of the dead animals, afterwards 
adulterate and fix up to sell, and pass it as a second or even 
a first grade lard. A very large per cent, of the people 
think that refined lard is better than kettle rendered lard, 
that all of the country butchers make. No grades of lard 
are as high sellers as the kettle rendered. 

There is no bigger fraud than the fraud of the adul- 
terated food, and no one is a greater sufferer, as I said be- 
fore, than the one avIio raises the medium and high grades, 
as they never get enough for their stuff. The original cost 
for a steer at the present prices might be 5y 2 to 6 cents 
per cwt. It will make 62 to 64 pounds dressed to the cwt. 
The original cost of an old canner that is so poor that it 
can hardly walk might be 1% to 2 cents per pound, and he 
won't make over 40 to 45 pounds dressed to the hundred, 
so you readily see there is only about 4 cents difference 
profit and not over 2 cents when you count the net weight 
of the original cost of the packer, but when you go to sell it, 
it undersells the good stuff, and makes a big profit off of 



With the Beef Teust 219 

the low grade stuff. It is not fit food for a buzzard to eat. 
Ten to fifteen years ago they shipped from Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey the low grade stuff, dairies and canners, 
that wasn't fit to kill, to Chicago packers to be canned. 

I was put out of business' here by the combine, an or- 
ganization of packers and stock yards, because I paid a big 
price for the good stuff and would not buy the common at 
all. I bought six months in the year eighty to ninety per 
cent, of all of the good stock that came to Indianapolis for 
more than twenty years. The other six months I bought 
thirty to fifty per cent. Six months in the year the East 
was supplied by their own productions, largely. The other 
six months they did not supply them. 

I had a customer in every city in the anthracite coal 
district and they paid the best prices and wanted the very 
best stock. They have not been able to drive out the local 
butchers in Pennsylvania up to this time, while they have 
got them all driven out of Illinois, practically, and very 
largely in Indiana, by buying a high grade of stock from 
Benton county, and shipping back the low grade product to 
sell to the local trade. 

I believe that the government ought to pay the inspec- 
tion; then the government can control it. I read a long 
letter from Nelson Morris to Leroy Templeton today. Leroy 
Tcmpleton has, probably, the best farm in the State of In- 
diana. There is not one-eighth of one per cent, of all the 
stock he markets that is not high grade. Nelson Morris ap- 
peals to him on the ground that this bill will ruin the w T hole 
cattle industry. But Templeton does not agree with him ; 
no more than I do. It will ruin the dealer of adulterated 
product, and surely reduce Nelson Morris' profit. I sup- 



220 Twenty Years in Hell 

pose I have bought five hundred boat loads of cattle for 
Nelson Morris, also bought canners and butchers. 

You might ask the packers what they do with the ones 
that die in the yards, or what Dutcher of the New York 
Central does with the lard out of his dead hogs, or 'Don- 
ell of Pittsburg, Sam Allerton's lieutenant, what he does 
with his dead hogs, or Sam Rauh, president of the stock 
yards in Indianapolis and fertilizer, what he does with his 
dead hogs, or the refined lard that may come out of them. 

There is no one who will go back to congress this year 
that is not in favor of the strictest kind of restriction on 
this greatest fraud the world has ever known — the adul- 
teration of the meat product. Beveridge has stubbed his 
toe by saying that he is willing to let these men who have 
poisoned millions of people with their unwholesome food, 
not be disturbed with their hundreds of millions of dollars 
that they have accumulated by doing so, call it bygones and 
whitewash them with asking them to be good hereafter. 
Pardon me this long letter. Still you couldn't expect me to 
give my forty years ' experience in this short space. 
Yours very truly. 

R. R. SHIEL. 

June 10th. 
Mr. E. C. Swift, Boston, Mass. : 

Dear Sir — I write to you personally, as I feel that the 
proper way for me to do, at this time, is to deal directly 
with the men who are fully in charge. 

The matter which I want to particularly call your at- 
tention to, is the stock yards I have leased at Kankakee, 
Illinois, from the Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railroad, with 



With the Beef Teust 221 

the lease running for thirteen years yet. The first six 
months, before th/e combination of the railroads came 
against me and put up my freights five cents per hundred, 
I did a very, very satisfactory business, showing a profit to 
myself and also to my customers in the East that took the 
output and to my country customers who brought the stock 
in. I had something over one hundred customers from the 
very best sections of Illinois, all of whom were highly 
pleased and w r ould have continued and the business in- 
creased, had it not been for the discriminations against me. 
Later the railroad that I had the yards leased from refused 
to permit me to "mill" anything in transit. 

I have it from a very reliable authority that your people 
want these yards, and have had negotiations with the rail- 
roads for them. I have been notified by the rail- 
roads that they would cancel my lease and for me to vacate 
the yards, a thing that you are no doubt aware of and a 
thing which I do not expect to do. I have got things in 
shape where I would much prefer not to get into a lawsuit 
if any adjustment can be made. My attorneys want me 
to bring suit against the railroad company and get an in- 
junction, compelling them to permit me to "mill" the hogs 
in transit, the same as they do in Pittsburg and practically 
everywhere else. This of course will bring up an impor- 
tant question, one which has never been decided by the 
interstate commerce commission or by the United States 
courts. The fact is there is no doubt as to getting a deci- 
sion in my favor, as every kind of product has been milled 
at all points and my attorneys say there is no court will hold 
that the hogs cannot be milled the same as the grain. They 
have refused to let me substitute ten hogs to make up the 



222 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

weight where ten hogs had died coming in, and have gone so 
far as to confine me to the actual count ; if two hogs died 
and it show ad 100 billed out at the shipping point, I should 
lose the billing, if I did not have the exact number go out 
that were billed. 

I have some two hundred and fifty clients from the 
"Farm to the Packing House" at one time, and there are 
one hundred or one hundred and fifty of them, that I could 
handle now, if I had the cars. They are thoroughly hon- 
est, as I know the honest ones and they know me well. 
When you became owner of the Squire house, the system was 
changed whereby they saw fit to get rid of me. You kept 
one man I had, who I knew would render you good service 
and was competent, that is Johnston. But you must re- 
member that he got all of his ideas from me of the Farm 
to the Packing House. I doubt not whether you have got 
twenty out of the two hundred and fifty customers, that you 
are continuing to do business with. 

If you would buy some hogs from me at anywhere near 
a relative price to what they sell at in Chicago or Indian- 
apolis, I would be able to forward you hogs on a commis- 
sion basis from Kankakee and also from country points, 
using your cars. You fully understand the position I am in 
and it is useless to go over the matter. It may be possible 
that your people do not want to do any business with me 
whatever. If you do not then I would be glad if you would 
say so; then I will go forward and make the necessary ar- 
rangements with other parties. I would not want to take on a 
lot of clients in the Easl and promise to furnish them reg- 
ularly w T hen I could make arrangements with houses like 
yours that use all kinds a1 anywhere near satisfactory 
prices. 



With the Beef Trust • 223 

I have been kicked around from pillar to post by a com- 
bination here, and I thought when I leased Kankakee I had 
a place where I was in full control and was able to know 
that I was giving honest weights, and that the hogs had not 
been salted in the country and filled with water in the vari- 
ous stock yards before my clients could get them ; you un- 
derstand I buy the hogs weighed off of the cars without feed 
or water and give them to my Eastern clients at the weights 
I get before they are watered and fed, also that the parties 
East would get the hogs, when they went direct, in the cars 
I put them in, without having them go through any stock 
yards where there might be mixes. While I was in New 
York about a year ago, Mr. Dutcher said that it was im- 
possible for him to get keys to their pens in the stock yards 
but what the stock yards people would get duplicates of 
them, and said that they could not help mixes, no matter 
how closely they were looked after in making transfers in 
stock yards. 

Let me hear from you at as early a date as possible, as 
I expect to make some change in the program at Kankakee, 
if I have to ask the court to grant me an injunction, w T hich 
I can get in fifteen days, to permit the milling in transit. 
This will bring up the question. Also will ask the court to 
pass on the railroads for putting up the freights five cents 
per cwt. in the freight groups tributary to Kankakee while 
they made no changes anywhere in the country, leaving 
the freights at Peoria, St. Louis, Chicago and Indianapolis 
stand where they were. My attorneys say that this is a di- 
rect discrimination against my Kankakee stock yards. 
Yours very truly. 

R. R. SHIEL. 



224 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

June 18, 1906. 
Hon. J as. W. Wadsworth, Washington, D. C: 

My Dear Sir— Pardon me for writing yon. I have met 
yon frequently and I feel certain that I knew your father 
in the war. I note the position yon take on the meat in- 
spection bill. I suppose you are aware that several years 
ago they shipped the canners from New Jersey, and possi- 
bly from New York State to Chicago to be canned, and get 
the calves out of them for canned chicken. I understand 
later they are canning them in the Bast. 

I have bought probably as much high grade live stock as 
any man living, in the last forty years, I have never dealt 
in the low grades. I know that you make your cattle on 
the farms good, and I assume that the ones off of your 
ranches in the "West are not marketed until they are good. 

The producers of the medium, the good, and the prime 
live stock do not get enough for their product that comes 
out of their cattle, and the one who markets the canners and 
low grades gets two prices for his. 

This, of course, I think you understand, and that the 
inspection cannot be too strict for the one who markets the 
medium and the high grades, which all makes wholesome 
food. The general public demands that there shall be a 
strict inspection. 

I presume I had as much to do as any one in the country, 
that wasn't a member of congress during Harrison's admin- 
istration, in getting the present law through, which is bet- 
ter than no inspection, but is far from being perfect. There 
can be but two classes of people opposing an inspection bill. 
One is the producer that wants to put his unwholesome stock 



With the Beef Trust 225 

on the market, and the other is the manufacturer, who 
wants to manufacture and adulterate it. The packer makes 
five times the profit on the low grade stuff that he does on 
the high grade. 

I presume you are aware that they have never been able 
to kill off the Pennsylvania farmer as they have the New 
York farmer, with their dressed beef, yet they have crippled 
him some. At one time I had as many as twenty-five clients 
in your State. Today I have got practically none, as most 
of them have been either absorbed or killed off. 

I am unable to account why you and Cannon, who rep- 
resent districts that raise good stock, and especially Cannon, 
in whose district they raise nothing but high grade stock, 
should not be in favor of strict inspection. 

I have been an inspector of packing houses for forty 
years. In fact, every year when I visit the East they all 
want to show me the improvements they have made. The. 
Eastman house in New York and the Squire house in Bos- 
ton are two that always killed the high grade stock and 
killed no low grades. They both have been killed off and 
absorbed, and are now operated by the Swifts. No house 
should be permitted after it has been absorbed to manufac- 
ture and sell low grade product on the reputation of the 
house that had always sold the high grade product. 

May I ask you what you know of stock yards and their 
connections with fertilizing establishments, and have you 
had any of your good cattle swapped for poor ones in the 
stock yards ? A few years ago, while in New York trying 
to collect claims off of Dutcher, who is the whole thing in 
the New York Central live stock business and has been for 



[15] 



226 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

years, he said there was no such thing as honest stock yards, 
that he had had thousands of keys made for the stock yards 
and the next day there would be hundreds of duplicates of 
them. Stock yards and fertilizers should be separated from 
packing houses and watched that they do not make the 
white grease out of dead hogs into refined lard. With kind 
regards and best wishes, 

Your very truly. 

R. R. SHIEL. 



Items from my Newspaper Scrapbook. 



R. R. SHIEL SHUT OUT. 



TROUBLE AT THE STOCK YARDS OVER PURCHASE OF HOGS. 



LIVE STOCK EXCHANGE MAKES RULES AS TO PURCHASE AND 
WEIGHING OF HOGS WHICH THE FIRM OF R. R. SHIEL & 
CO. REFUSE TO ABIDE BY AND IT IS SHUT OUT OF THE 
MARKET THE FIRM ISSUES A STATEMENT TO ITS CUSTOM- 
ERS AND THE PUBLIC GENERALLY. 



A controversy has arisen at the stock yards between the 
firm of R. R. Shiel & Co., purchasing agents, and the Live 
Stock Exchange, composed of the other buyers and sellers, 
which has resulted in the passage of a resolution by the ex- 
change shutting Shiel & Co. out of the market. The trou- 
ble has arisen over certain rules laid down by the exchange 
to its members regarding the purchase and weighing of 
hogs which R. R. Shiel & Co. refuses to abide by, claiming 
the exchange is in effect a combination. Similar trouble 
has been experienced at Kansas City, Chicago and Omaha 
where the matter was taken into the federal courts. 

R. R. Shiel has been in business at the stock yards since 
they were built, over twenty years ago, and in that time has 
done business aggregating $50,000,000. His average yearly 
business is $2,500,000. He has been buying on order for 
eastern packers in fifteen states in the East and frequently 
his daily purchases are sent to that many states. Mr. Shiel 

(227) 



228 Twenty Years in Hell 

publishes below a statement to his customers and the public 
generally concerning the controversy and his future plans. 
The statement follows: 

statement by shiel & co. 

To- Our Many Customers, Friends, and to Whom It May 

Concern: 

Dear Sirs — Last week we were in business and today 
we find ourselves out of business. In June we bought $200,- 
000 worth of stock, in July $290,000 and in August $255,- 
000, and today we are not able to do any business as the 
salesmen have refused to sell to us. We have been wiped 
out of business by the resolution of a combine whose de- 
mands, were we to meet them, would often compel us to 
do business at a greater loss than our commissions 
amounted to, 

This is the second time I have been wiped out of busi- 
ness, and practically the same cause that wiped us out the 
first time wipes us out now; that is, that we would not 
buy common hogs that shrink 25 per cent, at the same price 
or within 5 cents per hundred of the best hogs that only 
shrink 17 to 18 per cent. There ought to be a difference in 
any market of 15 to 25 cents per hundred, as the good ones 
will cost that much less dressed off the hooks if they are 
bought at the same price as the common ones. 

Eighteen or twenty years ago I was in the commission 
business, a third partner in a firm of three. I was super- 
intending the buying department, and my partners super- 
intending the selling, and we had the same contention that 
we have today ; that is that my partner wanted me to buy 
the common ones of him at the same price I was buying the 
good ones of him and others. Then we had a market, every- 
thing sold on its merits. The feeder that bred and fed the 
fine hogs got a price for them, and the one who fed them 
on insane hospital and city slop, which will shrink 5 per 
cent, more from gross to net, making a difference of 15 to 



With the Beef Trust 229 

25 cents per hundred, got that much less for his hogs. 
That is true today of other markets, but it is not true of 
ours. 

Fourteen years ago last June I was nominated for treas- 
urer of the State of Indiana, and to my utter astonishment 
my partners met in less than a month afterward without 
my knowledge or consent and resolved that if I did not stay 
there and quit politics they would put me out of business, 
which they did, and in July, 1884, I found myself just 
where I am today — out of business. Then every man did 
business as he wished. We used to buy hogs at $6 per dou- 
ble deck then, and for a number of years the selling charges 
were $3 to $4 per single deck, and $6 per double deck. 

Now what has changed the condition of things? Let 
me explain. After I was defeated for treasurer in Novem- 
ber, I wanted to get back into business if I could, and I 
took the buying side of the trade, and I have never sold a 
carload since. I had friends then, which I believe I have 
now, who put me back into business notwithstanding the 
resolution that put me out, and in less than two months I 
had every one of my old customers at the buying end, and 
more. Not long after this a few commission men got to- 
gether and organized what is known as the Live Stock Ex- 
change, with the purpose of dictating how one another 
should do business, and they commenced putting the sell- 
ing commissions up, and restrictions on every man doing 
business in the yards, until they resolved that no man 
should do business at the yards unless he be a member of 
the exchange, or that they would not do business with a 
man who was not a member. Then they commenced shap- 
ing the market to fit their resolutions, and as we would not 
accord with their resolutions, they have been shaping to 
put us out of business ever since, and last Friday they re- 
solved not to sell us anything, and last Saturday they re- 
fused to weigh to us after we bought them and refused to 
sell to us when we were bidding 5 eents more than anyone 
else was paying. They forced every man doing business 



230 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

there into the exchange but us, while, in fact, they put 
us in without our knowledge or consent, and afterward we 
got out of it. 

They have manipulated the paper and market reports 
going out of here so that it won't cover any purchases we 
make, for the purpose of breaking us down with our cus- 
tomers East. 

ONE DAY'S TRANSACTIONS. 

We will cite you the facts of last Friday. We bought 
one deck of fancy light hogs, with eight big heavy hogs out, 
at $4.10, of Middlesworth, Benson, Nave & Co., and another 
load of fancy light from the same firm at 4.07%, an d an- 
other load at $4.05. We bought of Clark, Wysong & Voris 
two loads at $4.07%. We bought of Tolin, Totten, Tibbs 
& Co. a full load of heavyweight lights at $4.05, and of the 
Capital Live Stock Company a number of mixed loads at 
$4.05, and bought of other firms at $4.05, and they refused 
to weigh to us. They met that same afternoon and resolved 
that these prices must not go into the Live Stock Journal, 
and dictated to this paper until it said the top on hogs was 
$4.02% and showed no account of any sale being over 
$4.02%. The fact was we did not get enough fancy light 
hogs, and would have been glad to have had more at $4.05 
and $4.07%. This same paper showed there were no as- 
sorted hogs of any kind over 130 pounds average sold less 
than $4 or over $4.02%. So you see every hog that day, 
taking their market report, sold from $4 to $4.02%, mak- 
ing only 2% cents difference between the best and the 
poorest hogs. 

Need we go any further to convince the most ignorant 
man that it is not an honest market report or an honest 
market? We have yielded point after point to their de- 
mands, but if we were to yield to this demand it would put 
us out of business entirely. On last Tuesday the writer 
went with the president of the exchange. He had a num- 
ber of hogs, between six and ten loads. He priced them 



With the Beef Tkust 231 

all at one price. In them he had hogs that were bought 
for speculation by a man working in his employ — what are 
known as wagon hogs— and he had several loads as good as 
come to market. He wanted the same price for every load 
of them, the wagon hogs and the fine-bred hogs. I bid 
him 5 cents more for three loads of his light hogs than he 
admitted to me he sold them for, but he said to me he got 
off all his hogs at the same price ; the wagon hogs that the 
man in his employ bought, that would shrink 25 per cent, 
from gross to net, sold at the same price that the fine hogs 
brought in by the customers from Illinois that would not 
shrink 18 per cent. He invariably asks the same price for 
his whole string of hogs. I have bought thousands of hogs 
from him at prices named, and named the price when I 
bought them, and when I went to my office found the prices 
were changed on the tickets. This was not an uncommon 
occurrence. I have said to him time and again this must 
not occur, changing the prices from what they were bought 
at, sometimes marking one man up and another down. This 
same man is president today, dictating, by calling a meet- 
ing of the exchange at any time he wishes, to take action on 
anything that doesn't suit his wishes. 

WHO THESE MEN ARE. 

Who are these men who have put me out of business? 
Most of them honest men, but poor, weak, ignorant mortals, 
dictated to by a few. There are about seventy members of 
the exchange, as I understand, many of whom I have ren- 
dered great service. Three of them have been my confiden- 
tial typewriters for years, another one my bookkeeper for 
years. They are at liberty to tell any crookedness that I 
have ever done. Bear with me until I tell you what I 
have done for a few of them. One of them I took when he 
was getting $10 per month and advanced him, and before 
he was twenty he was getting $50. Another I took when 
he was working at a livery stable, advanced him the money 



232 Twenty Years in Hell 

to buy a lot, and made him pay for it and build himself a 
house in the building and loan association, kept him until 
he could do better and helped him to do better ; an honest 
man, but deluded by the bosses. Another I took when a 
boy, paid him a salary for years, put him in business, and 
he cost me $1,000 and I paid it; another I gave a check 
for $2,500 to buy an interest in a firm, and indorsed him at 
the bank for the amount until he earned the money and 
paid it out individually. Another I negotiated a trade for 
whereby he sold an interest in his business for $3,000. An- 
other I gave a check for $3,000 to keep the bank from clos- 
ing them up and then indorsed them in bank to bridge 
them over. Another who came to me at a critical time 
when it looked like they were going to fail and said he 
was going to put his property in his wife's name, and I 
plead with him not to do it and indorsed him for $4,000; 
and another I negotiated a partnership for with a capitalist 
when he was a boy and put him in business. A number I 
have given my check to to bridge them over for a day in 
bank for from $500 to $2,000. All of these men — there were 
none- of them I could say were dishonest or that I believed 
were dishonest, but I will say they are poor, weak mortals, 
and they show the ingratitude of man when they turn on 
me, and many of them will be wanting me to help them 
again, and I expect I will have to do it. 

GET MARKETS FROM SHIEL. 

In fact, all of them come to me early in the morning to 
know what the markets are, as I pay for early telegrams 
from other markets, and have for years. Kingan & Co. are 
honest competitors of ours, excellent gentlemen and our 
friends, yet they belong, to the exchange. They for some 
cause buy all their hogs at the same price, scarcely ever 
making 2% to 5 cents' difference between the best and the 
poorest assorted hogs. We don't know why they do busi- 
ness that way, and it is none of our business why they do. 
It is a question if we have not bought as many hogs in this 



With the Beef Trust 233 

market in the last month as Kingan & Co. did. We have 
customers that want a fine bacon hog and are willing to 
pay for it, and have other customers that want fine butcher 
hogs and are willing to pay for them. The president of this 
exchange has said to us : ''You cannot buy a light hog un- 
less you buy my heavies, and you can't buy my heavies un- 
less you buy my lights and wagon hogs." 

We feel that a man in the country who sends in a load 
of light hogs ought to have them sold separately and on 
their merits, and the man who sends in grassy, half -fatted 
or slop-fed hogs ought to have them sold on their merits. 
The way it is now every man goes into a pool, and the man 
with the bad ones always gets the best of it, and the man 
with the good ones gets the worst of it. 

GOING TO START ANEW. 

Now we have to start into business anew, and we ask of 
the country shippers to either bill their hog£ to themselves, 
and we will buy their hogs of them, or bill them to us, and 
we will sell them or use them for our orders at $3 per car, 
and if we buy them of the shipper we will have them 
weighed and settle their charges for $2 per car. We will 
either buy them and weigh them straight with a dock, or we 
will assort them, as we have been doing heretofore. We 
will go back to the good old times when every man did busi- 
ness on his own hook and when the shipper could come in 
and sell his own goods. We will have a first-class cattle 
man, and we will sell cattle at just half the commission 
charged now under the rules of the exchange. Our buying 
commissions remain just where they are, at $6 per double- 
deck, the same as they were twenty years ago. It used to 
be $6 for selling and $6 for buying. The exchange put up 
the selling and put down the buying, or have members in 
it who are offering to buy at $3 and $4 per double-deck 
now. It is more work to buy a load of hogs than it is to 
sell them. 



234 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 



HOW TO SHIP STOCK. 



In billing your hogs and cattle bill them all to New 
York or Boston on the Big Four system west of here, to un- 
load at Indianapolis, care R. R. Shiel & Co. On the Penn- 
sylvania system west and southwest of here bill them to 
New York, Boston, Philadelphia or Baltimore, load in dou- 
ble-decks whenever it is possible to do so. On the Pennsyl- 
vania system use Keystone double-decks. On the Big Four 
system use Western live stock exchange, Central Vermont. 
Swift's live stock exchange or Mather double-decks. On 
the I., D. & W. bill to New York and do not route them be- 
yond Indianapolis, as we might want to send them via the 
Big Four or the Pennsylvania. We will pay all telegrams 
sent by us, you pay all telegrams sent by you, with the ex- 
ception of when you ask the market we will send the answer 
collect, or when we notify parties of shipment we send them 
collect. 

To our customers East, who have done business with us 
for years, and who know our manner of doing business, we 
ask you to be patient with us during the next week until 
such time as our friends in the country, whose hogs we have 
been buying through other parties, will send enough to sup- 
ply our Eastern demand or come in themselves and sell 
them to us. 

The hardest demand was made on us a few months ago, 
when they asked that we should buy just as Kingan's buy 
them and weigh them all in one draft. The rule had been 
before that if we bought hogs we could cut out the heaviest 
and weigh them to one man and the lights to another ; that 
we could weigh 5,000 pounds out of a load to fill a double- 
deck for one man and weigh the remainder to another man. 
But they made a rule in the exchange and enforced it, mak- 
ing the penalty a fine of $25 if they cut hogs out of a load, 
enabling us to weigh them down to the man we bought 
them for. 

To make it clearer, we bought a load of hogs — lights 



With the Beef Trust 235 

that we wanted to weigh down to a light-hogs man, with 
two heavy hogs in the lot, and we asked leave to take the 
two heavy hogs out and weigh them to a different man. 
The party selling them declined, saying he would be fined 
if he did it, making us weigh them into our assorting pen 
to take off the two hogs. "We have stood this for several 
months. We have had a rule for years that all the hogs 
we bought be weighed at the center scales, as it was next 
to our assorting pen, unless we bought a load that were 
uniform and would do to weigh down to the party we were 
buying for, and then they could be weighed at any scales. 

AS TO WEIGHING SCALES. 

A few weeks ago the president of the stock yard com- 
pany came to us and wanted us to permit them to weigh at 
any scales, saying the exchange demanded it. We told him 
we did not think we could do it, as weighing at the three 
would get hogs faster than we could assort them, and that 
we would have 2,000 hogs in our assorting pen at a time, 
and that hogs weighed to us at 10 o'clock in the morning 
we would not have assorted by 2 in the afternoon. Weigh- 
ing at the one scale we could assort them about as fast as 
they weighed them to us, and in that way our shrink would 
be lighter, or we could approximate about the difference 
between what they weighed in and what they weighed out. 
But, however, to please the president of the stock yard 
company, we told him we would try it and weighed at all 
the scales. One day they weighed out 1,680 pounds less 
than they weighed in. Our commissions were $60 and our 
loss on shrinkage about $65, so we worked hard all day and 
we had $5 less money that night than we had in the morn- 
ing. Another day we had 1.300 pounds shrink, taking 
nearly all our commissions ; another day 1,100 pounds, an- 
other 960 pounds and another 700 pounds. 

So we found we had either to quit weighing at all the 
scales or go out of business. No honest man could or would 



236 Twenty Yeabs in Hell 

put out hogs for more than they cost, and when our mar- 
ket report goes out $4.02^ for the top, when in fact the top 
was $4.10, it makes it very hard oil us. Our customer in 
the East reads the top price here $4.02%, and he, getting 
his hogs at $4.07% and $4.10, might think we are dishonest, 
and we could not blame him. This is enough at this time, 
and you will no doubt hear from us from time to time. It 
has been said one man cannot buy and sell at the same time, 
but it is being done in all markets. 

What we will endeavor to do is to give the country ship- 
per with the good goods the market price relatively to other 
markets and also to this market, and the Eastern customer, 
that always wants the good ones, the goods at the market, 
and if we err in doing it it will be an error of judgment 
and not error of heart. 

With kind regards and best wishes, we beg to remain, 
Respectfully yours, 

' R. R. Shiel&Co. 

Per Shiel. 

Indianapolis, Sept. 19. 



NEW TURN IN HOG WAR. 



IT PROVES TO BE A LIVELY DAY AT THE STOCK YARDS. 



A REPLY IS MADE TO THE STATEMENT OF THE R. R, SHIEL COM- 
PANY BY THE OTHER SHIPPERS IN THE DAILY STOCK YARDS 
JOURNAL-— "BHODY" CLAIMS THE EXISTENCE OF A TRUST 
HAS KEEN ACKNOWLEDGED. 



The trouble at the stock yards between the firm of R. R. 
Shiel & Co. and the Live Stock Exchange was given another 
chapter yesterday when in yesterday's issue of the Tndian- 
apolis Daily Live Stock Journal, the official paper of the 



With the Beef Trust 237 

Union stock yards and horse market, appeared the follow- 
ing reply to the statement of the firm of R. R. Shiel & Co., 
printed in yesterda\r 's Sentinel : 

NOTICE TO SHIPPERS AND DEALERS IN LIVE STOCK. 

Indianapolis, Sept. 19, 1898. 

In view of the fact that the firm of R. R. Shiel & Co. 
have this day issued a circular to the country shippers of 
stock, said circular containing statements the material part 
of which is utterly false, we hereby desire to state the sim- 
ple truth, and that is that R. R. Shiel & Co. have demanded 
that their purchases of hogs shall all be weighed on a par- 
ticular scale, and the one w x here the shippers reweigh nearly 
their entire purchases and have a preference. The avowed 
object of this move on their part is to compel the hogs they 
buy to lie in the alleys a long time so that (as they ex- 
pressed it) the country shippers will stand the shrink in- 
stead of the buyers. This demand the salesmen refused to 
concede, and also refused to sell them hogs until they would 
accept them as the other buyers do, namely, to be weighed 
on the scale most convenient "of the three scales " provided 
for that purpose by the stock yards company. This action 
was taken purely in the interest of the owners of hogs 
put in our charge, as we feel that it is our duty to see 
their interest protected in every reasonable way.' Re- 
spectfully submitted. 

H. II. Fletcher & Co. 

Jeffrey, Fuller & Co. 

Helm, Lewis & Co. 

Adin Baber & Co. 

Tolin, Totten. Tibbs & Co. 

Stockton, Gillespie. Clay & Co. 

M. Sells & Co. 

Midcllesworth, Benson, Nave & Co. 

Powell, Beasley & Co. 

Clark, Wysong & Voris. 



238 Twenty Years in Hell 

J. C. Kershaw & Co. 

The Capital Live Stock Commission Company. 

Dye, Valodin & Co. 

W. H. Hoshal & Co. 

THE shiel company 's reply. 

To this statement the firm of R. R. Shiel & Co. makes 
the following reply in the form of a letter to the editor 
of The Sentinel: 

To the Editor — Sir: Inclosed find admission of the 
trust. It explains itself. Our reputation is well estab- 
lished and our manner of doing business, and not for mark- 
ing up one man and marking down another after a bona 
fide sale. 

We do say that we are glad that they have admitted 
that we take care of our customers, and when our friends 
from the country intrust us with their business we guaran- 
tee they will have no reason to complain. We will take 
as good care of our country customer as we have with our 
eastern customer, and deal honestly with both. We will 
commence weighing at 6 o 'clock if the scales will open 
and will have the bulk of our hogs out of the way before 
the exchange market opens. We guarantee that every hog 
at the stock yards that is consigned to us by 7 o'clock will 
be weighed and account of sale rendered by wire not later 
than 10 o'clock, and every load we buy from the country 
shipper we will see that they are weighed in an hour, or not 
later than an hour and a half, and that he has a check 
two hours after they are sold. We don't have to wait for 
a market to weigh our hogs up, as we have our orders by 
wire the night before, and a standing order from John B. 
Squire & Co. of Boston, a house that kills about as many 
hogs per year as Kingan & Co. do, for from three to fifteen 
double-decks per day if the market is favorable. 

Almost half of our hogs are bought on discretionary 
orders, and we can give a load or two to any of our cus- 
tomers most any day more than they order. They have 
some confidence in our judgment. Today we bid $4.10 for 



With the Beef Trust 239 

all light hogs here. The hogs we bid $4.10 for, the mar- 
ket report shows sold at only $4.02%. This is the honest 
trust market. Send your hogs to our market and you will 
be well taken care of. 

With kindest regards and best wishes, we beg to remain 
respectfully yours, 

R. R. Shiel & Co. 

Indianapolis, Sept. 19. Per Shiel. 



THE COMBINE BROKEN. 



R. R. SHIEL CO. WIN A VICTORY AT THE STOCK YARDS. 



To the Editor — Sir: We have won a great victory 
today for the people against the combine. It is clearly 
demonstrated that the few cannot combine against the 
many. We bought about half the hogs in the yards. 
Bought every country shipper's hogs that came in with 
them but two. They were all consigned, but the shippers 
took them away from the trust and sold them to us them- 
selves. One of the generals in command of the combine 
had eight loads consigned to him and we got five of them. 
The $3 commission has come to stay. Three dollars saved 
by the country shipper and have their business done 
promptly is quite a saving to them. We weighed all of 
our hogs straight and docked them, and there was not a 
load of them that was not weighed within twenty minutes 
after they were bought. We hire plenty of help to do the 
work, while the combine generally has but one man to a 
firm. The reason of the slowness of weighing the hogs that 
they complain so much about, is some of them only have 
one man to the firm to weigh, and they have cheap men. 



240 



Twenty Yeaes if Hell 



We won't have a cheap man or a slow one around us. We 
will have easy sailing from now on as the country ship- 
pers will realize what we are doing for them. 

R. R. Shiel & Co. 
Indianapolis, Sept. 20. 

The following are the quotations of the Shiel market. 
R. R. Shiel & Co. against the combine. Bought of the 
country shippers the following hogs at the following prices, 
the shippers taking their hogs from the combine, selling as 
quoted to Shiel & Co. 

Shiel wants hogs shipped by shippers in their own 
name. He will buy all that are so shipped, or if sent to 
Shiel & Co., will be sold on their merits or taken by him for 
his eastern trade. 

Number. Ad. Dock. Price. 

31 hogs 137 ... $4.00 

20 hogs 171 ... 4.10 

14 hogs 170 ... 4.10 

2 hogs , 175 ... 4.10 

8 hogs 136 ... 4.10 

29 hogs 207 ... 4.10 

20 hogs 172 ... 4.10 

88 hogs 141 360 4.10 

23 hogs Ill ... 4.10 

88 hogs 140 240 4.10 

1 12 hogs 151 600 4.05 

37 hogs 179 ... 4.10 

35 hogs 179 120 4.05 

72 hogs 185 100 4.05 

80 hogs 132 ... 4.071/O 

58 hogs 210 40 4.071/. 

43 hogs 190 200 4.071/s 



With the Beef Trust 241 

October 3, 1898. 

WANT TO COMPROMISE. 

BUT RHODY SAYS HE IS INDEPENDENT AND WON'T DO IT. 



To the Editor — Sir : Thirteenth act of the great drama. 
How they are trying to placate us. Sending our friends to 
us suggesting a way out of the dilemma. A very warm per- 
sonal friend of mine, whom I believe to be an honest man, 
met me Friday and admitted that all that I have charged 
is true as to the thieves and corruption ; said he was among 
the first to advocate the organization of the exchange, and 
believed it would be of general benefit to the business, and 
that the exchange would right the wrongs and help wipe out 
the corruption. He admits that it has not done so much as 
he thought it would do, but said to me that I had under- 
taken a great task; that there was no more corruption in 
these yards than in others ; that there was great opportunity 
in the business for corruption, and a great many corrupt 
men were in it ; that it was a business that tried a man 's in- 
tegrity, and the temptations were so great that men became 
corrupt in this business that would not without this tempta- 
tion before them. 

He was trying to advise me to let up and effect a com- 
promise. They would let me weigh on the scales I had been 
weighing on; they want to keep up their exchange and have 
me join it. That, I told him, was an impossibility, as I 
would not belong to an organization that had as corrupt 
men as some of the men in it. He said that they all ad- 
mitted now that I would get all the stock from the country 
that I wanted, but their only hope Avas that I would not be 

[16] 



242 Twenty Years in Hell 

able to get out all that I would get in. I told him that did 
not worry me, for I had fifty customers or more for whom I 
had done business in the last twenty years, more or less, in 
the East that could use all the stock that came here, with 
the exception of days of heavy runs. I had no fears but 
what if we had more than we had orders for our local 
packers would buy of us at the same price as they would of 
others, and the commission we charged the country shipper 
would be at least $1 a car better off if I sold them at 2% 
cents less. Our commission would be only one-half of what 
the combine's commission would be, as we only charge for 
selling the same as we do for buying. He said to me that I 
would break down under such a strain. I told him there 
was no strain on me now, and there had not been much from 
the start. Th.ey only shut me out for two days. While we 
had not been getting half the amount of stock we had orders 
for, our customers East did not blame us for it, and are wil- 
ling to fill their orders elsewhere until we are in shape to 
serve them. I said we had gone too far now to make any 
compromise. We had employed a number of men to take 
charge of the receiving department, and from now on would 
be better equipped than any firm in the yard to receive the 
stock that came consigned, and to handle the stock the coun- 
try shippers sold to us. 

There are a few young men, for whom I have great sym- 
pathy, that belong to some of the firms that come to me and 
say that it is going to break them up in business ; that when 
they have to sell at $3 a single deck and $6 a double deck 
their expenses would eat them up. They admit that we can 
do it cheaper than they can, as we get a double commission. 

R. R. Shiel & Co. 

Indianapolis, Oct. 2. 



With the Beef Trust 243 

STOCK YARDS CONTROVERSY. 



MR. SHIELDS RESPONSE TO THE STATEMENTS MADE BY MR. 

RAUH. 



To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal : 

In your paper of the 13th, Mr. Rauh, president of the 
Stock Yards Company, publishes a part of the agreement 
which was written by him in a room selected by him and his 
committee. My lips were sealed, and now that he has pub- 
lished a part of the agreement I hope that he will publish 
the letter dictated by me, which was handed to him to sub- 
mit to his committee as they were going to the room, and 
also the part of the agreement which I dictated at my house 
and sent to him. I am glad that he has unsealed my lips. 

I have never denied, and do not now deny, that there 
were negotiations for settlement, and in every case it was 
solicited by Rauh, his traffic manager and vice-president. 
The $100,000 to stop the building of the stock yards was not 
half the amount claimed by my company, and would not 
pay us for the damage done us and our customers. This 
will be settled in court hereafter. Mr. Rauh well knew at 
the time why he and his associates cut out a small part of 
the agreement, and did not publish it all. One of the agree- 
ments related to the weighing of corn in place of measuring 
it in a basket. The $100,000 was largely going to my East- 
ern customers that I had bought for for fifteen to twenty 
years. They were all damaged when the resolution was 
passed against us by the exchange, of which Rauh js a mem- 
ber. There were a number of customers that w r ere associ- 
ated with me and wanted stock in the new stock yards com- 



244 Twenty Years in Hell 

pany. The way it leaked out that there was. to be a new 
stock yards built was that one of my customers came here 
and Rauh got hold of him and the customer told it. 
Rauh had him two hours in his office, and then had 
him in the Bates House twice and made propositions 
to him to give his orders to others instead of to me. He 
took the proposition home, had it submitted to his house; 
the house turned it down, and he came back here and still 
wanted to get in the stock yards, which I had in contempla- 
tion. I promised him $10,000 stock and that per cent, of 
interest in it. He wanted more, and I would not let him 
have it. So Rauh saw him again, and he has now quit 
doing business with us. It is a well-known fact that Mr. 
Rauh and his associates in his exchange notified Mr. 
Squire 's buyer, Mr. Parsons, when he came here to take our 
place, that if he did any business with us the other commis- 
sion houses would not sell him anything. I want to ask Mr. 
Rauh if it is not a fact that he had $775,000 of the $1,- 
000,000 water common stock, held in escrow, and went to 
New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and Chicago, and 
showed that this stock yards paid a dividend on a million 
bonds, $500,000 preferred, and a million common water? 

I want to state emphatically that Mr. Erwin's name or 
anyone else's was not mentioned during our negotiations 
with Sir. Rauh. The fact is no one now interested in the 
Interstate Stock Yards Company, so far as I know, was in- 
terested in the other company that I propose to settle for, 
with one or two exceptions. Rauh is largely responsible for 
these gentlemen embarking in this enterprise, while there 
are a number of them that are our friends and did not 
Wc'int to see us crushed by the combination againsl us. 



With the Beef Trust 245 

There was one of our Eastern customers that complained so 
much about their treatment here, and censured us for stand- 
ing the wrong done them and us as long as we had without 
exposing it. I said that I was afraid of them, and it was 
not an easy matter to fight such a combination. The reason 
they are so provoked about the Interstate Stock Yards Com- 
pany is that the gentlemen associated with it are strong 
financially, and are all first-class business men. 

A settlement was made a few years ago by this stock 
yards company. I negotiated partly the deal, and at that 
time there was something like $150,000 or $200,000 raid; 
and we have never heard much about it in the newspapers. 
These new stock yards will be built and operated, and will 
furnish everything at prices returning a reasonable profit 
on the investment. It is silly to talk about stock yards hav- 
ing any special right over any other business. 

R. R. Shiel. 



MR. SHIEL 'S LETTER, 



IN WHICH HE PROPOSED TO ACCEPT FOR HIS ASSOCIATES 

$100,000. 



IT IS MADE" PUBLIC FOR THE FIRST TIME BY PRESIDENT RAUH OF 

THE BELT RAILROAD AND STOCK YARDS COMPANY MR, 

SHIEL AGKEED FOR THE SUM NAMED NOT TO BUILD OR IN- 
TEREST HIMSELF IN NEW STOCK YARDS IN INDIANA OUT- 
SIDE OF LAKE COUNTY — INTERESTING READING. 



The attention of Mr. Samuel E. Rauh, president of the 
Union Stock Yards Company, was called yesterday to the 
published statement of Messrs. D. P. Erwin and R. R. Shiel 



246 Twenty Years in Hell 

in the Sunday editions of The Sentinel and Journal pur- 
porting to be in answer to a statement made by him in The 
Sentinel of the previous day, and he was asked what, if 
anything, he cared to say in reply thereto. Mr. Rauh said : 

I have no desire to carry on a newspaper controversy 
with either Mr. Erwin or Mr. Shiel, but in justice to my 
company I deem it proper to say something further at this 
time. 

In his statement in the Journal Mr. Erwin is reported 
as saying: "The old company wants to buy me out and 
is attempting to worry us into selling, but we are not to be 
bought." I wish to state most emphatically that there is 
not and never was any desire on the part of the Union 
Stock Yards Company to buy out the new company or the 
promoters of it, and in view of what has been said by Mr. 
Erwin and Mr. Shiel on that subject I will now state the 
facts concerning the proposition made by Mr. R. R. Shiel, 
acting for himself and associates, to which I referred in 
the interview with me reported in Saturday's Sentinel. In 
the Sentinel of February 24 reference was made to a new 
stock yards company and connecting Messrs. Squire and 
Humphrey with it. Mr. Fred F. Squire is treasurer and 
Mr. F. E. Humphrey is traffic manager of John P. Squire 
& Co. of Boston. On that day a reporter called to see me 
and asked me about the matter. I told him I knew nothing 
about it. He then asked me if there wasn't some way of 
getting information on the subject, and I said to him that 
if Mr. Squire was interested he could likely get information 
from him. With a view of advising myself whether there 
was any foundation for the published statement, and while 
the reporter was still in my office, I called up by telephone 
at Chicago Mr. Fred F. Squire of John P. Squire & Co. 
of Boston and told him of the published statement in the 
Sentinel, of the reporter's call and asked him whether there 
was any foundation for the statement. In answer to this 
he asked me to tell him all there was in the published state- 



With the Beef Trust 247 

ment. I told him it was too long to repeat over the tele- 
phone at that time. He then asked me to mail him a copy 
of the Sentinel containing the statement, which I did on 
that day. I asked him when he would be in Indianapolis, 
as I would like to have a talk with him. He said that he 
did not know when he would be here, but would write me. 
He brought the conversation to an end by saying that he 
did not care to talk about the matter over the telephone. 

LETTER FROM MR. SQUIRE. 

The following morning I received from Mr. Squire, by 
special delivery, the following letter : 

Frank O. Squire, President. Fred F. Squire, Treasurer. 

John P. Squire & Co. 

No. 40 N. Market St. 

Transportation Department. 

F. E. Humphrey, Traffic Manager, Boston. 

Chicago, III., February 24, 1899. 

8. Rauh, Esq., President Union Stock Yards, Indianapolis, 

Ind. : 

My Dear Sir — Referring to our conversation by tele- 
phone this morning, as per your request, I would be pleased 
to meet you at any time or place, preferably at Mr. F. E. 
Humphrey's Chicago office, 619 Rialto building, next Mon- 
day morning. 

If, however, your object is to consult with me in regard 
to Indianapolis matters, I must respectfully decline to en- 
ter into any controversy, as both Mr. Humphrey and myself 
have placed the matter in the hands of Mr. R. R. Shiel. 

Kindly wire me at above address if you decide to take 
the trip. 

Yours truly, 

Fred F. Squire. 

I made no answer to this letter. The same day that it 
was received Mr. R. R. Shiel advised me that he, too, had 



248 Twenty Years in Hell 

received by special delivery a letter from Mr. Squire au- 
thorizing him to act for him. 

At this point I may add that Mr. Shiel had some differ- 
ences with the commission men at the stock yards with 
which my company had nothing to do, but because of which 
he (Shiel) brought suit against my company to compel the 
opening of the scales at the stock yards at 7 o'clock in- 
stead of 8 o'clock in the morning. This is the only litiga- 
tion between Mr. Shiel and my company. 

Before this talk with Air. Squire over the telephone a 
meeting had been arranged for Saturday, February 25, at 
the Denison Hotel, between Mr. Shiel and Mr. Hansen, 
Colonel Downing and myself, with a view on my part of 
ascertaining and putting in substantial form what Mr. Shiel 
wanted. 

MR. SHIEL 'S PROPOSITION. 

This meeting was held at the Denison Hotel at the time 
appointed, Mr. Shiel and the other gentlemen named being 
present. At this meeting, in talking with Mr. Shiel about 
the matter, he said that there was something more than 
these differences to be considered, and that there were other 
parties interested, and he then began to talk about the new 
stock yards company, and when he was finally asked what 
he wanted, he made the statement embodied in the follow- 
ing communication to the Belt Railroad and Stock Yards 
Company signed by him and delivered to me at the time. 



With the Beef Trust 249 

"T. J. Cullen, Manager 

The Denison. 

Indianapolis, Ind. 

Erwin Hotel Co., Proprietors. 

February 25, 1899. 
Belt Railroad and Stock Yards Company: 

Gentlemen — In consideration of $100,000, to be paid by 
the Belt Railroad and Stock Yards Company, to be paid 
as follows: $25,000 cash, $25,000 in one year, $25,000 in 
two years and $25,000 in three years, all deferred payments 
to bear 4 per cent, interest, the undersigned, w T ho is em- 
powered for himself and his associates, agree not to build 
or interest themselves in any stock yards in the State of 
Indiana, except Lake county, and further agree to use all 
their efforts in advancing the interests of the Belt Railroad 
and Stock Yards Company, and further agrees that he will 
maintain a market at the Belt railroad and stock yards 
equal to the Chicago stock yards prices on hogs. 

This proposition or agreement to hold good and binding 
until the 15th day of March, 1899. 

R. R. Shiel. 

At this meeting Mr. Shiel stated in his very positive 
way that this proposition was final and that because of the 
absence of one of his associates, Mr. Erwin, who was then 
in Europe, there could be no change made in its terms. 
The proposition, which speaks for itself, was rejected. 



NO CONSPIRACY. 



In his decision in the so-called Indianapolis stock yards 
conspiracy case, Judge Artman of the Boone Circuit Court, 
gave both sides a clean bill of health, declaring it to be his 



250 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

opinion that all involved were honest. It is well for the In- 
dianapolis market that he decided the case as he did, as 
there is no way of computing the damage that would have 
occurred to Indianapolis as a live stock receiving point had 
the judge decided that there was any basis for the claim 
that the Indianapolis stock yards officials follow the prac- 
tice of weighing stock light to the commission man and then 
weighing them heavy to the purchasing representatives of 
the packers. 

The knowledge that a toll was being exacted of every 
consignor of live stock to Indianapolis would have been a 
revelation to the trade, and the farmers and breeders of the 
State would speedily have turned to other markets where 
they could get what was rightfully coming to them. In- 
dianapolis is growing steadily as a live stock center, but a 
decision in favor of the plaintiffs in this case would have 
checked development and set the market back ten years. 

However, the decision carries with it one regret — it 
marks the retirement from active live stock business of 
"Rhody" Shiel, probably the most widely known live stock 
man in Indiana. In his brusque and picturesque way he 
has done much for Indianapolis; taken- part in the develop- 
ment of this live stock market from the very first. It was 
but natural that a man possessing such a powerful will and 
determination, so emotional and impulsive, should encounter 
obstacles. He has, for many years, been more or less an 
Ishmaelite in the trade, his hand against them all and every 
man's hand against him, but the conspiracy charge could 
not be made to hold in the end. It is pleasing to note that 
he emerges from this unequal contest with some of the fruit 
of the long years of service in the development of the In- 
dianapolis market still in his possession. 



With the Beef Tkust 251 

Saturday, September 19, 1896. 

SPEECH BY R. R. SHIEL. 



HIS OBSERVATIONS OF THIRTY-ONE YEARS BUSINESS EX- 
PERIENCE. 



THE PRICES OF LIVE STOCK AND GRAIN DURING THAT PERIOD. 

THE DIFFERENCE IN RAILROAD RATES EFFECT 

OF THE CRIME OF 73. 



R. R. Shiel was at the Union Station last evening, wait- 
ing for a train to Brooklyn. He was going there to make a 
political speech, based on his thirty-one years' experience as 
a buyer of live stock in the Indianapolis market. He said 
that his object included a demonstration that the " crime of 
73" had nothing to do with the fluctuation of prices of 
farm products. He had handled sixty million dollars' 
worth of the products of the Indiana farmers, and is now 
handling two millions annually. As he outlined his argu- 
ment, a crowd assembled about him in the station, and final- 
ly he took out his speech and read parts of it. He said, 
both there, and later at Brooklyn : 

The first car of stock that ever I bought and shipped was 
a load of hogs at Elwood, of W. H. Harmon, in 1865, and I 
paid 5 cents a pound for them. 

The first two loads of cattle I bought, I bought of James 
Gwinn, still living near Fishersburg, in Madison county, the 
last of September, 1865. I paid $4 a hundred for them, 
and they weighed about fourteen hundred pounds. I ship- 
ped the hogs to Cincinnati, and paid $30 for the car. I 
could ship the same car today for about $15. I loaded the 
two cars of Gwinn cattle at Anderson, and I billed them to 



252 Twenty Years in Hell 

Buffalo. John Pence, now a banker in Anderson, was the 
railroad agent, and Quincy Van Winkle, who is now gen- 
eral superintendent of the Big Four, west of Buffalo, was 
an errand boy, learning the telegraph business, and helped 
load the cattle. The freight on the two cars of cattle was 
$150. I can ship two cars today from Anderson to Buffalo 
for about $60, less than one-half. 

In 1867 I shipped the first two carloads from Moores- 
ville, on the Vincennes road, that were ever shipped on it. I 
bought two carloads of cattle of Mr. Alexander Conduit, 
who at that time was your neighbor, and is now a citizen of 
Indianapolis. I paid him $4 a hundred for them, and the 
cattle weighed 1,450 pounds. The same cattle today would 
be worth $4.25. I paid $172 freight to Buffalo, and the 
freight*on the two carloads would be about $72 today. This 
was before the " crime of 1873." 

COMPARISON OF PRICES. 

Today I had my bookkeeper take from my books prices 
that I paid for stock in August and September each year 
since 1889, when Harrison was inaugurated. They are as 
follows : 

Year. Hogs. Cattle. Sheep. 

1889.. . $4 20 to $4 40 $4 30 to $4 50 $4 20 to $4 40 

1890.. . 4 70 to 4 80 4 50 to 4 80 4 30 to 4 60 

1891.. . 5 60 to 5 70 5 50 to 5 75 4 20 to 4 50 

1892. . . 5 50 to 5 85 4 50 to 5 00 4 50 to 5 00 

1893.. . 5 75 to 5 90 4 00 to 4 50 3 50 to 4 00 

1894.. . 5 50 to 5 85 4 40 to 5 00 2 00 to 2 50 

1895.. . 4 75 to 5 20 4 75 to 5 25 3 00 to 3 25 

1896.. . 3 10 to 3 40 4 25 to 4 75 2 50 to 3 00 

This will show conclusively that the so-called "crime of 
1873" has nothing to do with the prices of the farm prod- 
ucts. And no one, who wanted to be honest and fair, would 
claim such a thing. 



With the Beef Trust 253 

There has been a gradual decline in the railroad rates 
ever since the war, while the farm products have varied, 
which the above figures show, from year to year. 

In 1869 I bought thousands of hogs here after the fail- 
ure of crops here in 1868 and 1869, and paid 10 cents for 
them, and as high as 7 cents for cattle and 6 cents for 
sheep; and in 1872, before the great "crime," I bought the 
same hogs for 4 and 4^ cents, and the same kind of cattle 
at 4 cents, and sheep at 3 cents; while in 1874 and 1875 1 
paid 7 cents for hogs, 5 cents for cattle and 5 cents for 
sheep, three years after the' "crime." There is no year, 
since 1865, with the exception of 1879, that hogs in Septem- 
ber were as low as they are now. In fact, there is no year 
they sold for less than 4 cents in August and September. 

Now, as the figures show, we have had high prices for 
hogs since 1891, both of hogs and corn, which have caused 
the farmers to turn their attention to producing more hogs, 
and the large crop of corn in 1895 enabled the farmers to 
produce hogs in larger quantities than they had for sev- 
eral years back. This, with new competitors that have been 
opened up in Denmark and Russia the last two years, which 
are furnishing England and Germany with great quantities 
of hog products, is the cause of low prices now. There is a 
packing house in Denmark that kills about three thousand 
hogs a day, that three years ago only killed a few hundred, 
and they are great competitors in England and Germany, of 
Kingan 's and all American exporters of hog products. 

CROPS IN THE SOUTH AND WEST. 

And another cause for the low price of hogs this year is 
that the South had large crops of corn last year, and the 
continued high prices since 1888 have caused them to turn 
their attention to raising more hogs and corn. 

This year, contrary to my custom for twenty years, I 
have not bought a load for Louisville, and some of the best 
customers I have in New York and Baltimore have supplied 



254 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

themselves in Louisville and have bought very few here ; in 
fact, Louisville has been shipping hogs here to Kingan & Co. 
They have never had the receipts there that they have been 
having all this year. They are raising more corn and less 
cotton every year. The last few years I have bought as 
fat cattle as I ever bought, that came from Arkansas and 
Mississippi, that were fed on cotton seed, where thirty years 
ago this same cotton seed was burnt up. If Mr. Bryan 
would post himself he could say to his farmers in Nebraska 
that the great market, the South, that twenty years ago was 
the largest consumer of the pork and corn of Nebraska, is 
today producing corn and hogs of their own, sufficient to 
supply over half that they consume. 

Now, as to the price of wheat and corn. In 1867 I fed 
a thousand hogs in Hamilton county. I bought the stock 
hogs at 3% and 4 cents in January, and bought the corn 
at 27 to 33 cents, This was before the " crime of 73." 

Now, there has been no year since 1867, until this year 
and last year, that corn could be bought in Hamilton county 
for less than I paid for it in 1867 ; and, in fact, the price 
has generally run in January and February at from 35 to 
40 cents. In 1894 it sold up as high as 55 and 60 cents. 

Now, if the " crime of 73" made the corn sell low this 
year, why didn't it make it sell low in 1893 and 1894? 

As to the wheat, it varied in price from 1865 to 1873, 
from a dollar to $1.50. Wheat has sold as high as $1.25 
and $1.30 after the "crime of 73," in 1879 and again in 
1882. The low price of wheat is an easy thing accounted 
for. We have had two of the largest crops ever known in 
this country, and in 1890 Russia produced 140,000,000 of 
the surplus, India 30,000,000 of the surplus, Hungary 30,- 
000,000 of the surplus ,and in 1895 Russia's surplus was 
470,000,000, India's surplus 260,000,000 and Hungary's 
surplus 130,000,000. Now, all this surplus had to sell in 
the same market and in competition with ours. 

When we had the high price of wheat in the sixties there 
was no wheat raised in Dakota, very little in Kansas and 



With the Beef Trust 255 

the West, and spring wheat sold for 10 and 12 cents less 
than the winter wheat did. Now, spring wheat sells for the 
same price as winter wheat. The great wheat country of 
the United States is the Dakotas, Kansas and the West, 
when prior to the seventies they did not raise any for 
market. 

If Mr. Bryan would tell you that the large crops in 
Russia, Hungary, India and the Dakotas are what made 
your low prices, the American people would have more re- 
spect for his judgment and integrity. Why don't he tell 
you what the price of sheep was in 1892 when they sold 
at 5 cents under the McKinley bill, while in 1894 under the 
Wilson bill they sold at 2%? He has not told the little 
farmer on his little thirty or eighty-acre farm that under 
the McKinley bill in 1890 and 1892 that he got 12% and 15 
cents per dozen for his eggs ; 15 and 20 cents for his but- 
ter, and 50 per cent, more for all his poultry than he is get- 
ting now. 

I have dealt so much with you for the last thirty-one 
years that I feel that I am almost a farmer. I feel like de- 
fending you when I hear the charge on every corner that all 
the farmers are going to vote for the Populist crusade can- 
didate. I say to them it is an insult to the farmer. The 
farmer is as intelligent as any other one class of men, and 
after the election is over I feel sure that there is no one 
class of people that is more interested in getting an honest 
dollar for their product than the farmer. And the election 
will prove that my assertion is true. 

I give you facts and figures from my thirty-one years of 
actual experience in business. Bryan has been advocating 
a theory. Theory won 't stand against facts and actual ex- 
perience. 



256 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

LIGHT ON THE CITY COMPANY. 

The Hon. Augustus Lynch Mason, in his interesting re- 
port of his administration of the Citizens' Company, in- 
timates in pretty plain language that the City company 
tried to "hold up" his company for big money — tried to 
"sell out" its contract to his company at a'dizzy figure — 
tried to be "bought off" to get out of the way — or what- 
ever the right phrase in the language of Wall street or 
Fifth street may be. It seems also that the Citizens' com- 
pany was willing to "deal" with the City company until 
the demand of the latter became too high. It would have 
been "mighty interestin' readin' " if the Hon. Augustus 
Lynch Mason had given us the exact amount that his com- 
pany was willing to pay to the City company and the 
amount that the City company demanded. 

It has been in the air for a long time that a "sell-out" 
was arranged at one time, but if we mistake not Mr. 
Mason's statement is the first official confirmation of the 
truth of the rumor. Vague reports have been circulated as 
to the amount of money that was to be given, and as to its 
precise disposition — how many tens of thousands of dollars 
each investor of his name and of a few tens of dollars in the 
City company was to receive. These rumors have long been 
floating about vaguely — doubtless growing somewhat as ru- 
mors do grow — but they have been assiduously denied, in 
part, at least, by the parties in interest. Now it appears 
that there is ample and substantial basis for them. It is a 
great pity that Mr. Mason could not have given us the full 
details. The publication of them — if they are what his in- 
timations imply and what rumor has declared — would, to a 



With the Beef Tbust 257 

certain extent at least, cause a reaction of sentiment in 
favor of his company. The people of Indianapolis are not 
interested in seeing local " financiers ' ' "get a whack" at the 
Citizens' company. 

The people of this city were brought to believe that the 
organization of the City company was made in entire good 
faith, and principally from motives of city pride and patri- 
otism. It is for that reason that it has had the support and 
encouragement of the press and of good citizens generally. 
Had people supposed that the City company was a Nickel 
Plate or West Shore enterprise, that it was formed more as 
a trading enterprise than with a view to the actual carrying 
out of its ostensible object, there would have been far less 
confidence in it or expectation from it. But if Mr. Mason's 
intimations can be taken to mean what they seem to mean, 
if the rumors that have long been current are really well 
based in fact, we shall have to modify our opinion of the 
City company. We shall have to think that the motive in- 
spiring its formation and manipulation was not so much the 
desire of benefiting the city by seeking to put the street rail- 
way business on a sound and rational basis, as it was the 
hope of using the street railway situation for large personal 
gain, without incurring any risk of loss — without really 
making any investment. 

It is difficult to believe that some of the men in the City 
company would lend themselves to a Nickel Plate enterprise. 
But it has been still more difficult to believe that certain 
others in the company could be influenced by any but mer- 
cenary motives. We must think that those of the first class 
were not fully conscious of the real purpose of the company, 
but that they were led to believe that while the enterprise 

[17] 



258 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

was designed to make money, money was to be made by 
legitimate development and in subordination to the perma- 
nent interests of the city. 

This, you understand, was at a time when agitation was 
going on before the legislature, when Taggart was mayor 
and seeking to get a bill through the legislature nine y*ears 
before the charter would expire, which I will explain 
later on. 



Noblesville, Ind., Friday, Oct. 2, 1896. 

TO THE FARMERS. 

RHODY SHIEL, THE WELL-KNOWN STOCK DEALER, 



DELIVERS THE BIGGEST SPEECH OF THE CAMPAIGN AT CICERO, 

IND., GIVING FACTS AND FIGURES FROM PERSONAL 

EXPERIENCE REFUTING POPOCRATIC THEORIES. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — I have been in- 
vited here tonight to talk to may old neighbors and friends 
on the political issues of the day. I am not going to make a 
speech to you, but I am going to talk to you as one neigh- 
bor should talk to another. My opinion is that the issues 
today between the two great parties are the most important 
probably in the history of this country. Thirty-five years 
ago this last month I answered to the call of Abraham Lin- 
coln for 300,000 men and went forward to battle for the 
country's flag, enlisting in this very city. I felt sure that 
after four years of war that it had been settled by the 
sword, once and for all, that States' rights had been shot 
to death, but we see a convention assembled recently in Chi- 
cago where they assailed the President of the United States 



With the Beef Trust 259 

for sending troops to that city to stop riot and bloodshed 
and destruction of property and to enforce the law, and 
also criticised the Supreme Court of the United States for 
the decisions rendered according to the law and the con- 
stitution in the light in which they saw it. The Supreme 
Court is the highest tribunal known to the government, and 
when it renders a decision any true American must bow 
his head in submission, as it is the sole judge. I didn't 
vote for Grover Cleveland and I didn't believe that he 
ought to have been elected President, but when he received 
a majority of the votes he was my President just as much 
as the men who voted for him, and when he sent the troops 
to stop riot and bloodshed and protect property, I felt as 
proud of him as if I had voted for him. What has Grover 
Cleveland not done that he or his party claimed he would 
do if he were elected? He has carried out all pledges of 
the platform to the letter of the law. The Republican party 
believes that the principles of the Democratic party inaug- 
urated into law would not be the best thing for the country, 
and it has been clearly demonstrated that we were right. 
When the Democratic convention assembled in Chicago they 
denounced their own President, and every supporter of the 
Chicago nominee, and the nominee himself, denounced 
Cleveland and his entire cabinet for carrying out the 
pledges of the party as inaugurated in the platform in '92. 
Since I have come to your city this evening I have 
learned that there has been a great crime perpetrated — a 
wonderful crime — and I find many of your citizens up in 
arms and excited over the crime. (A voice from the floor, 
"What is the crime?") The demonetization of silver in 
'73. (Another voice, "It took you a long time to learn 
that.") I grant you that is true, but the great crime was 
perpetrated in '73. A national Democratic convention as- 
sembled in '76, another in '80, '84 and '88, and again in 
'92, and not one of these Democratic conventions had 
learned it, so you ought not to be astonished that I hadn't 
learned it. But 23 years elapsed and a convention assem- 



260 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

bled with a new Moses, and they discovered the great crime 
that had been perpetrated 23 years before, and the records 
show that nearly every Democratic Senator and member 
of the House had voted for the crime. What was the crime ? 
They claim it was the stoppage of the coinage of silver. Let 
us see if the coinage of silver was stopped. Since 1776, the 
foundation of the government, up to 1873, there had been 
something over 8,000,000 standard silver dollars coined in 
all, and after that time, during the last 23 years, there has 
been $442,000,000 coined, or about 57 times as much in 
the last 23 years as had been coined in 97 years previous, 
or 57 dollars for every dollar. Now anyone can readily 
see that the coinage of silver was not stopped and that this 
great crime was never committed. 

They tell me that the farmers are all going to vote for 
the free and unlimited coinage of silver, but let me show 
you why I think the farmer will be the last one who will 
vote for it. The silver miner is a farmer, and there is just 
one difference between a Colorado farmer and an Indiana 
farmer. The former employs cheap labor to work his farm 
and produce silver bullion, while the Indiana farmer la- 
bors on the farm himself. Now just go with me seeking the 
markets of the world for the products of a few States. I 
see two carloads of silver bullion loaded on a train in Colo- 
rado and start East, hunting a market ; they come to Ne- 
braska and take on two carloads of corn, then to Iowa and 
take two cars of cattle, in Illinois two carloads of wheat, 
and from Indiana two carloads of horses ; from Ohio they 
take two carloads of wool. 

Going over the mountains of Pennsylvania the owners 
of all the products, riding in a car attached to the rear of 
the train, the bullion owner asks the Ohio man, "Where are 
you going with your wool?" The Ohio man answers': "To 
New England. I understand that is the best wool market." 
Turning to the Indiana man, he asks: "Where are you 
going with your horses?" Indiana answered: "To Glas- 
gow, Scotland; that is the best horse market at present." 
Of the Illinois man he asks: "Where are you going with 



With the Beef Trust 261 

your wheat ? ' ' The answer was : ' ' Paris, France. ' ' Then 
he asked the Iowa man. " Where are you going with your 
cattle?" "To London, England, as I understand it is the 
best cattle market/' replied the Iowa man. Of the Ne- 
braska man he questions : ' ' Where are you going with your 
corn?" "To Germany,'' said he; "it is the best corn 
market at present." Then the Indiana man addresses the 
Western man and says: "Mr. Colorado, where are you 
going with your silver ? ' ' The answer came : " I will leave 
you at Harrisburg ; I am going to Washington. Bryan has 
been elected President, there has been a populist congress 
and a populist senate elected and you have all voted for 
them and they have had a special law passed for me; 
every 53 cents' worth of my product is going to be coined 
into a dollar under the new law. You have to hunt the 
markets of the world for your product and you have to 
labor with your hands producing your product, but I em- 
ploy cheap labor an,d produce mine, and gulled you folks 
into voting for Bryan to enable me to get a special law 
passed. How do you like it?" 

Then the farmers began to see what a great mistake they 
had made. After the Colorado man gets his 53 cents coined 
into a dollar it is still his dollar and you can 't get any of 
it. I see Mr. Bryan, in his Madison Square speech, said 
that the farm products had gradually declined since the 
"crime of '73," and in fact everything else but railroad 
rates. Now, he was either ignorant of the facts or he wil- 
fully lied." 



Thursday, October 15, 1896. 

ORATORY AT NOON-DAY. 



GROWTH OF THE MID-DAY MEETINGS IN MERIDIAN STREET. 

The noon meetings at the Sound Money League Hall, in 
North Meridian street, have grown in attendance, and the 
hall is crowded daily. G-eorge W. Julian will speak at noon 



262 Twenty Yeaes iist Hell 

tomorrow, and many old friends are arranging to give him 
a pleasant reception. 

If , for any reason, the appointed sound money speaker 
fails to appear, there are orators in abundance. Rhody 
Shiel was one of today's speakers. "I have believed from 
the start," he said, "that this campaign should be carried 
on, not as a Republican campaign, not as a Democratic cam- 
paign, but as an American campaign. 

' ' The first meeting I attended this year, and, in fact, the 
first time I learned of the danger of this crusade, I went to 
a meeting at English's Opera House, and heard my long- 
time friend, John Kern, say that free silver would bring 
ruin, and a panic such as the country had never witnessed, 
and, of course, I believed John. Then, I listened to my 
friend, Greene Smith, and he strengthened me in the belief. 
And last, but not least, if I had had any doubt in my mind, 
it would have been removed after I heard my old friend 
and comrade, Captain Meyers, who convinced me beyond a 
doubt that it was a crusade of the worst kind, and that no 
honest man could be a party to such a crusade. But, later, 
I find that my friends, Kern, Smith and Meyers, were poor, 
weak mortals ; that their love of a party discipline was far 
more important to them than national honor, sound money 
or love of country. I could not have believed it possible 
that my old, beloved comrade, Meyers, could have deserted 
Hancock, Sigel, Sickles, Black and Palmer — in fact, every 
captain and colonel who had fought in the war for the old 
flag and glory, are all joined hand-in-hand following their 
leaders. Our own captains, Madden and McHugh, and 
Cols. McLean and Havens, who will follow me here, have 
joined in the support of Palmer or McKinley and an honest 
dollar. Indeed, I don't know an officer above a corporal's 
rank in the State, who served in the last army, with the ex- 
ception of Meyers, who has deserted and enlisted under 
Coxey, Bryan, Tillman and Altgeld's army." 



With the Beef Trust 263 

MASSES AND CLASSES. 

Rhody Shiel spoke yesterday at Carthage in the after- 
noon and in Rushville at night. At the latter place he said : 
"I can't find out where the masses end or where the classes 
begin. I do not know which one I belong to, and if I belong 
to the classes, when I got to be a member. What must a 
man be worth to belong to the classes? Must he have 1,000 
acres of land, 300 acres, 100 acres, 50 acres, 20 acres or 
10 acres ? Must he be worth $1 or $2 ? Here, take Farmer 
Ellis out here, whom you all know. He's worth 600 acres 
of land. Say his daughter marries one of his hired hands, 
and the father gives with his daughter's hand 100 acres of 
the land to his new son-in-law. Is the son-in-law trans- 
ported all in one night from the masses to the classes? 
Thank God, the truth of the matter is there are no mases 
and classes. 

"Who are the anarchists." said Rhody, again; "who 
were they in the Chicago troubles ? They were not the men 
who struck for better pay. They were not the honest rail- 
roaders. They were the men whom Governor Altgeld let 
out of the penitentiary. They were the disciples of Till- 
man. I am against these anarchists. They kill my fellow- 
countrymen — the policemen. You know nearly all police- 
men are Irish." Rhocly says the silver question has been 
talked to death, and that patriotism will be the keynote of 
the remaining days of the campaign. 

Shiel shows a letter to himself from the Republican 
national headquarters, thanking him for the good work he 
is doing, and informing him that the best parts of his 
speeches have been selected and printed in pamphlet form, 
to be distributed to 3,000,000 readers. 



264 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

The Indianapolis Sentinel, October 29, 1896. 

THE LAST CARD. 

The Republican managers are in a state of desperation. 
They realize that they are completely whipped on the 
money question. The people have seen through their falla- 
cies and inconsistencies offered in support of gold mono- 
metallism, and are determined that they will have no more 
of it. The effort now is to turn the issue back to the Civil 
War, and by a vigorous waving of the bloody shirt bring 
back if possible the silver Republicans who have become 
disgusted with Republican slavery to the money power, 
The following is a copy of a letter now being sent out to all 
parts of the State by one of the most prominent Republican 
leaders in this campaign : 

My Dear Friend and Old Neighbor — You no doubt will 
be surprised to receive this letter from me, but I have learnt 
that you have been talking of voting for the silver craze. 

Now I am not going to argue with you as to the right 
or wrong of the money question, as you or I don't know 
much about the government finances; I am sure that I 
know but very little about it, and don't suppose you know 
much more than I do. I do know the so-called demonetiza- 
tion of silver in 73 has no more to do with the low price 
of products this year than it has to do with the hog cholera, 
in one neighborhood and another, but it has got beyond the 
money, tariff or any other question now: it has got to the 
question, Have we a government, a President and a Su- 
preme Court, or are we going to^have State's rights that 
I had fought for for four years, and thought we had shot it 
to death, and have it inaugurated again, and the exiles and 
scum of foreign countries come here and run this govern- 
ment under the form of anarchy led by Altgeld, Tillman and 
Coxey, and this wild man, Bryan, whose only recommenda- 
tion is his bier mouth and lots of wind? God forbid that we 



With the Beef Trust 265 

should ever have such a man elected President. He never 
did a day's work in his life, like you and I have done. He 
undertakes to win with false and lieing representations, and 
appealing to the passions of the ignorant. God forbid that 
such an intelligent man as you are, and one who came loy- 
ally to the flag in time of trouble, and now thirty-one years 
after the war, would be a party to dissectional strife, as to 
arraying the masses against the classes. God knows we 
have no masses or classes. You knew me in my humble log 
cabin home, and if my position in life has been changed, I 
have changed it myself, and the same avenue is open to 
every American boy. I spent thirty-five years of my life 
in fighting for what I thought was right, four years in the 
war and the rest in the Republican party, and to my mind 
there never was in the history of the country such an im- 
portant election as this one for the perpetuation of the 
government. I hope you, as the honest boy I knew you, 
and as still the honest man. will weigh this matter, and 
weigh it seriously before casting your vote. Think of the 
hundreds of thousands of lives and the four years of suf- 
fering in the late bloody war, and you will be a party to 
help blot it all out. I appeal to you in the name of every- 
thing that is sacred, your wife, your children and the chil- 
dren who mil come after you, to help stay the hand of the 
President, the court and the government, and let us settle 
the question of money at some other election. Yours, 

R. R. Shiel. 

Mr. Shiel has been rated as one of the most efficient of 
the Republican speakers on the money question. He has 
made dozens of speeches on that subject, many of which 
have been printed in the Journal. Many Republicans have 
said that he understood the money question better than any 
speaker they had except Beveridge. Now he confesses that 
he " knows very little about it," and probably in confiden- 
tial conversation would admit that he knows nothing at all. 



266 Twenty Years in Hell 

Still more striking is his closing sentence: "Let us settle 
the question of money at some other election. ' ' What does 
this mean? As plainly as words can say, it means: "We 
are wrong on the money question. I know we are wrong. 
But for heaven's sake stay with the party and we will get 
straight hereafter. " And why does he ask his friend to 
stay with the party? For the memories of the Civil War. 
He objects to " dissectional strife," but waves the bloody 
shirt and tries to rouse the feelings of sectional strife of 
thirty years ago. And he does it in a false issue. Gen. 
Harrison and Mr. Shiel have entered into an effort in the 
last hours of the campaign to save the Republican party 
from deserved defeat. Harrison with his tongue and Shiel 
with his pen make a strong team. Their arguments are 
identical. Their thought flows along the same lines. But 
they will not succeed in deceiving the people. The money 
question will be settled at this election, not "some other 
election." 



"RHODY" SHIEL 'S TALK. 

Following is a verbatim report of the speech of Rhody 
Shiel: 

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens — I ask your forbear- 
ance for a few moments, as a citizen of Indianapolis, and I 
trust that tonight there is no disturbing element in this 
meeting that will keep the most humble citizen from ex- 
pressing his honest opinion. No doubt there are many that 
expect me to enter into a personal abuse of individuals and 
the press which has vilified me, but that I am not going to 
enter into. Whatever success I have had in life or in my 
business I have gained by not seeking to build myself up by 
tearing others down. Permit me now to state my views on 



With the Beef Tkust 267 

the question that is agitating the people of Indianapolis. I 
believe, and am willing to stake my reputation as a business 
man, that in 1901 if the honest people of all parties, who 
have the best interest of the city at heart, will stand firm 
they can let a franchise then at 2 cents straight fare and 3 
cents for a transfer and the company that gets the fran- 
chise can make more money at 2 and 3 cents than the John- 
sons did ten or twenty years ago under their mule system. 
I believe the people ought to have some benefit of this 
grand invention of electricity, and not let a few wealthy 
men, who can organize themselves into a great corporation 
for the purpose of controlling the public press, and also the 
State and city legislatures, and they get all the benefits, to 
make themselves still richer, while the poor man with his tin 
bucket going to his work will have to pay the same fare, 6 
cents, in 1930, as he did under Johnson's mule system thirty 
years ago. 

Is the poor man to have no advantage of all the great 
discoveries that have been made since 1865, when the Citi- 
zens' franchise was let, until 1931? I think I see the one 
and two-cent street car fare in twenty years from now, as 
common a thing as the five-cent fare is now. The working- 
man today, starts to work with ten cents in his pocket, and 
pays it out for street car fare ; if they all stand together, 
and see to it that no one is elected mayor of this city or to 
the council in any ward from now until 1901 who is not but 
a true friend to the laboring man, and one who has been an 
advocate for low fares, I will stake every dollar that I have, 
and my reputation, that the workingman in 1902 can start 
to work in the morning w r ith ten cents in his pocket, and pay 
four of it out for street car fare, and return in the evening 
with three loaves of bread, for the six cents he has saved by 
the reduction of the fare, and the street car company will 
make almost as much money under the low fare, as by the 
high, as twice as many will ride, and they will run cars 
twice as often as they do now; they will have to do it to 
accommodate the people. 



268 Twenty Years in Hell 

Why let a franchise in "93" that could not go into 
effect until 1901. There is certainly not an intelligent man, 
that wants to be honest, but what knows that we can get a 
better franchise today than we got in ' ' 93 ' ' under the mid- 
night council, and knows that we can still get a better one in 
1901, than we can today. Might as well buy a dress for 
your wife, and have it made in "93" for her to wear in 
1901, it would be clear out of style; the five-cent fare will 
be out of style in 1901, everything is tending. to lower prices 
and why not street car fare? It don't matter to me, who 
owns the street car tracks, whether they live in Philadel- 
phia or here, and don 't think it matters much to any other 
citizen, only the few stockholders and their friends. I am 
sick of this howl of stop thieves, when the stealing has prob- 
ably been as bad on one side as another, and the people hold- 
ing the sack for both sides. 

I feel it due to myself and the community that I make 
some reference to myself being howled down the other night 
in a mob. It is the second time in my life that I have been 
suppressed, and I have been in some very close places. I 
was shot down at Chickamauga, by Longstreet's corps and 
had to succumb. I attacked a mob in the streets here a few 
years ago, during the street car strike, of about 20,000 and 
succeeded in getting a hearing, but this mob of a few hun- 
dred under the charge of the city officials at the English 
Opera House, succeeded in suppressing me, when if they 
would have permitted me to talk, I was only going to ask 
them a few questions and that was on a point where I had a 
right to talk. As a member of the Board of Trade since 
1867, I was going to raise the point that there never had 
been a meeting called of the Board of Trade, which consists 
of 500 members, or of the Board of Governors, which con- 
sists of forty, and that that resolution was only gotten up 
by four members of the Board of Trade, and was not the 
expression of the Board o£ Trade. 



With the Beef Trust 269 

The Indianapolis Sentinel, April 22, 1898. 

PATRIOTIC RHODY SHIEL. 



HE URGES MEN TO -VOLUNTEER — SCENES AT RECRUITING ROOMS. 

Last night was an eventful night at the recruiting sta- 
tion of the " First Volunteer Indiana Regiment" on N. 
Pennsylvania street. Patriotic oratory was the feature of 
the evening and the room, which holds several hundred peo- 
ple, was jammed full most of the time. The speakers stood 
on the table, where the recruting rolls are signed. Col. B. 
C. Shaw, a veteran of the last war, and G. W. Warmoth and 
Charles Korbly, jr., of thp younger generation made patri- 
otic speeches and were enthusiastically received. 

There was a stir when Rhody Shiel was introduced by 
Vic Backus, the colonel to be of the volunteer regiment. 
' ' Rhody ' > was a private in the last war. l i I enlisted on the 
day I was eighteen years old, ' ' he said. v ' We have got war 
on us right now and I tell you if you don't want to fight 
you'd better not join this regiment under Vic Backus. Let 
me tell you this : It's no matter now whether this war was 
brought on rightfully or wrongfully. That's something you 
don't have anything to do with now, but right or wrong 
your duty now is to stand by your country. ' ' 

Great cheers followed this outburst. Mr. Shiel con- 
tinued: "I have said that I wouldn't enlist in this war, 
but, at the age of fifty-eight, I will go before I will see this 
flag dishonored." 

Mr. Backus talked briefly, saying that it was the pur- 
pose to organize a regiment that would be ready to leave in 
fifteen minutes after permission was granted. He spoke of 
the great honor that it would be to belong to the first regi- 



270 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

ment of Indiana volunteers. Enlistments were made rapid- 
ly. In order to incite the crowd John Murphy stood two 
young boys, who had enlisted, on the table and told the 
crowd of older men to imitate the example. 

There were some interesting incidents at the recruiting 
station yesterday. One man, seventy-eight years old with 
gray hair and drooping form, walked up to enlist, and when 
Mr. Backus told him he was too old the tears rained down 
his cheeks. He acknowledged that he was forty-five years 
old when he was mustered out of the union army in 1865. 

A deaf mute walked up and handed in a carefully writ- 
ten application, giving his name as H. C. Anderson. In this 
petition he said : ' ' The crucial test of valor is on the battle- 
field and not by loud mouthings or vain vaporings. You 
are well aware I am deaf, but I beg you will leave this out 
of your consideration, for I have eyes to see and hands for 
action which I assure you I will endeavor to use to the best 
advantage within my power. ' ' 

He seemed greatly disappointed when told by the re- 
cruiting officers that his services could not be accepted. 



(October 6, 1896.) 

MR. SHIEL'S NEW SPEECH. 



one of the unique stump efforts of the campaign. 



SHOWS WHY FINANCIERING SHOULD BE DONE BY MEN WHO 
HAVE A TRAINING FOR IT. 



There was a large crowd of people sitting in the head- 
quarters of the Citizens' Sound Money League last night. 



With the Beef Trust 271 

and as they were there to hear politics discussed R. R. Shiel 
volunteered to entertain them for a while, and he did it 
royally, too. He showed the folly of men who have never 
studied the question of finance attempting to put their 
views above those of men who have done nothing all their 
lives but study these matters. For the purpose of his illus- 
tration he spoke figuratively. 

"Now, say I am a free silver man," he said. "I am 
not, but then for the present you can imagine I am, and 
then we can understand each other. Well, in 1897 I was 
elected to the United States Senate to succeed Mr. Voor- 
hees — that's a fact and you needn't smile about it — but I 
resigned soon after when I found I knew nothing about 
financiering for the government and went to buying hogs 
again. You know I am a good hog buyer. I stand as high 
as a hog buyer as John Sherman does as a financier, and 
any stock man in the country will tell you so. 

"Well, that part is settled. I was elected in 1897 and 
went down to Washington with an idea that I knew all 
about this thing of financiering for the government. I was 
just going to turn things over and see that laws were passed 
that would give every man plenty of money. Sure enough, 
I was appointed on the finance committee to take Mr. Voor- 
hees's place. Well, it took me about four days to find the 
committee room in that big building down there they call 
the Capitol, but what more would you expect of a first-class 
hog buyer who had turned government financier ? At last 
I found it and stumbled into the room one day. There was 
John Sherman, who has been in the financiering business 
for forty years, and Senator Hoar and Senator Allison, 
who have served almost as long financiering for the govern- 



272 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 

ment. Then I saw General Morgan, of Alabama; he's been 
financiering for the government for a long time, too. To 
make it short, there they all were — men who had been do- 
ing the government financiering for a long time — longer 
than I have been buying hogs. 

"Pretty soon there came a rap, rap, rap, and John Sher- 
man said the committee would proceed to do the govern- 
ment financiering. Then old Senator Hoar got up and said 
something. Senator Allison had his say. General Morgan 
got in a few words and then I arose with all the dignity I 
had and John Sherman said : 

" 'Mr. Shiel, the new senator from Indiana, has the 
floor. ' 

"I knew that. Then I told them that they were all 
wrong ; that they did not know what they had been talking 
about; that for all these years they had been financiering 
for the government in the wrong way, and that what they 
needed was a little advice from an Indiana hog buyer. 
Then I proceeded to tell them how much more money the 
people would have under free coinage of silver, and you bet 
I told them at the same time how they had committed the 
crime of 1873 and that stuff. About this time 'I am a 
Democrat ' jumped to his feet. 

" 'Mr. Chairman,' he said, 'I rise to a point of personal 
privilege. ' 

" 'State your point, sir.' 

" 'This man is crazy, and I move that we have a com- 
mission set on his sanity.' 

" 'Well, the commission was appointed and it sat on me, 
and it sat hard, too. The next thing I knew I was in an 
insane asylum, and when I was told why I was there I got 



With the Beef Trust 273 

to thinking, and I did some tall thinking, too. ' Now, Rhody, ' 
I thought, 'you Ve got no business here. You were making 
money buying hogs in Indiana and you were known as one 
of the most reliable hog buyers in the country. You know 
nothing about doing the government's financiering and you 
had better go back and buy some more hogs.' I sent for 
John Sherman and I apologized to him and told him that 
I was a good hog buyer, but that I didn 't know much about 
financiering for the government. "When he let me out I re- 
signed and came home, but I thought that would teach me 
a lesson. 

' i Things went all right for a year, then one morning my 
little colored messenger boy came rushing into my office at 
the stock yards and said : 

" 'Mr. Shiel, yo' bettah git out heah. Dey's some 
strange men down theah and dey's jest buyin' evahthing in 
sight and yo' won't get nothin' ef yo' don' hurry.' 

1 ' I jumped up and rushed out to the pens and there was 
old John Sherman in the cattle pens buying everything 
offered and paying 50 cents more than the market price. 
And there was Senator Allison just paying anything asked 
for sheep ; and hogs ! Well, Senator Hoar was paying $12 
a hundred pounds. That beat me. I knew they couldn't 
sell them and come out even, and so I walked up to John 
Sherman and asked him what he meant by this. He said 
he had found that the farmer was not getting enough for 
his stock and he was going to teach us stock buyers some- 
thing. Well, us stock buyers then got together and we had 
a sanity commission appointed, and those men were sent out 
here across the river where they keep such people. Why, 
my little ten-year-old messenger boy knew more about hog 

[18] 



274 Twenty Years in Hell 

buying than those big senators who had been doing the finan- 
ciering of the country for more than a generation. After 
they had been locked up a short time they concluded that 
they did not know much about hog buying and they apolo- 
gized and were turned loose. 

' ' Now, that is just how the matter stands today. Here 
are a lot of little two-by-four politicians and hog buyers 
who want to do the financiering for this government, and 
they don't know any more about it than John Sherman 
knows about buying hogs, and that is precious little, I can 
tell you. I am not a senator any more and John Sherman 
has quit buying hogs. ' ' 

Throughout the peculiar speech there was the closest at- 
tention, but Mr. Shiel's remarks were broken a number of 
times by the laughter of his listeners at the odd manner of 
treating the subject. When Mr. Shiel closed with the re- 
mark that he was no longer a senator and that John Sher- 
man had quit buying hogs there was a long and loud ap- 
plause, and many were the remarks that, odd as the talk 
was, it was a good illustration of the point made. 



September 24, 1896. 

A LESSON IN CONFIDENCE. 



R. R. SHIEL MAKES A PRACTICAL ARGUMENT AT JAMESTOWN. 



Special to the Indianapolis Journal. 

JAMESTOWN, Ind., Sept. 23.— Hon. Charles B. Landis 
and Roger R. Shiel spoke at a big meeting here this after- 
noon. The speech of Mr. Shiel was something novel and 



With the Beef Teust 275 

interesting in the line of a political argument. He said in 
part: 

' ' I have been invited here to make a speech to you today. 
I don't expect to make a speech, but I come to talk business 
to you. Thirty years ago I made my first visit to your 
place. At that time this part of Boone county was a wil- 
derness compared to what it is now; in fact, they talked 
of it as a frog pond or swamp of Boone county. I came 
here on horseback and bought about three hundred hogs of 
Mr. Van Ausdel, then your neighbor, living about a mile 
and a half east of here. Permit me to occupy your time a 
few minutes to show you the difference in the manner of 
doing business then and now. At that time, when a trader 
went to the country to buy farmers ' stock, he had to carry 
with him the money to pay for the stock at the scales, and 
I brought with me about $7,000 in currency. The hogs 
were driven by Mr. Van Ausdel to Indianapolis for me 
after I purchased and paid for them in currency, the price 
being $4.60 a hundred. My next visit was in the fall of 
1868, when I purchased two carloads of Van Ausdel & 
Lowry, then living in Lizton, the first two carloads ever 
shipped on your road, then the I., B. & W. We loaded them 
at Mr. Van Ausdel's farm and used a wagon bed for a 
chute to load them, as the railroad had provided no load- 
ing pens. There has been no year since that I haven't been 
buying your stock. I continued to come here and bring the 
currency up until about 1874 or 1875, when the trade 
changed. I have often carried $25,000 to this and Hen- 
dricks county to pay for stock, but since 1875 my checks 
have been going all over your county and Hendricks and 
Montgomery, and when I purchase stock from any farmer 



276 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

I have given my check for it, and he has usually carried 
the check home and deposited it in his bank, and I under- 
stand that all local buyers now give their checks to the . 
farmers when they buy and very little, if any, money is 
paid out at the scales where the stock is delivered. I re- 
member, two years ago, that I purchased $28,000 worth of 
cattle of your neighbor, Grit Clay, who lives a few miles 
south of here in Hendricks county, and I gave him my 
check for it; he carried the check home, and it was a 
week before he deposited it in his bank at Danville. At the 
time I gave the check for $28,000 I didn't have a thousand 
dollars in the bank where I did business, but the same day 
I deposited a draft in my bank on Tim Eastman, payable 
in five days in New York, and I don't suppose Eastman had 
any money to meet the draft. I happened to be in New 
York when the Clay cattle arrived there; saw Eastman 
killing the cattle and loading them on a vessel to ship them 
to Liverpool. Mr. Eastman called me up to the desk and 
said, 'You see my bookkeeper is making a thirty-day draft 
on Liverpool to take up your draft that is due today. ' 

' ' When the thirty days rolled around and the draft was 
due in Liverpool Eastman had sold the cattle in his butcher 
shops that he had in Ireland, England and Scotland, and 
collected the gold for them from all classes of people in 
those countries. So you see it does not take the actual cash 
to be paid down at the scales to carry on business as it used 
to thirty years ago. Clay had confidence in me when he 
took my check home. Fletcher had confidence in me when 
he allowed me to draw the Eastman draft and gave me 
credit for it ; and the bank in New York had confidence in 
Eastman when it allowed him to draw on Liverpool and 



With the Beef Trust 277 

give him credit for it. In fact, I do two millions of busi- 
ness in a year and don't handle $500 in currency, while 
thirty years ago I had to pay out currency for all the stock 
I bought. 

"I can remember one time carrying home from Pitts- 
burg $46,000 in currency — this was in 1869 — and in 1872 
a number of times carried $25,000 and $30,000 from Cin- 
cinnati and came to this and adjoining counties and paid 
it out for stock at the scales. 

' ' Now, I am not going to talk to you about government 
finances, but I can see readily that it don't take as much 
money to do business now as it did thirty years ago, yet 
from what I know of government finances there is as much 
or more money per capita than there was thirty years ago. 
We hear it every day that there isn't enough money to do 
the business of the country. That is not what is the trouble. 
It isn't more money; it is more confidence we want. 

"I was in Fletcher's bank the other day when Mr. 
Fletcher threw down his balance sheet and showed me that 
he had $3,600,000 on deposit, and he said that he had some- 
thing near six thousand depositors. I asked him how much 
he had loaned out of that deposit; he said he had 8iy 2 
per cent, of it in bank. I asked him if he thought that was 
good banking; he said it wasn't profitable banking to the 
bank, but the $3,600,000 belonged to the depositors and not, 
to him, and wiiile this agitation was going on he wasn't 
going to loan another man's money when the man might 
come in any day and call for it. He said : ' Some of it is 
yours ; you are liable to call for it at any hour, and I have 
it here for you. If this agitation wasn 't going on we could 
loan our deposits safely down to within 30 or 40 per cent. 



278 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 

Years ago the manufacturer used to borrow money and 
manufacture in the fall for the spring and in the spring for 
the fall, but now our best manufacturers only manufacture 
to fill orders and don't carry any stock, and they don't need 
the money they used to ; there is not the demand for it from 
the manufacturers and we are glad of it, because we prefer 
to keep the money, in these kind of times, in our vaults. 
When an individual leaves the money on deposit he leaves 
it here for safe keeping and wants it when he calls for it, 
and these kind of times we are prepared to pay it out to 
him when he comes. Many of our customers have deposited 
gold and they expect gold when they come for their 
money.' " 



SILVERITES EXPOSED. 



R. R. SHIEL SHOWS UP THE HYPOCRISY OP THEIR CLAIMS. 



Special to the Indianapolis Journal. 

LEBANON, Ind., Oct. 7. — The soldiers and sons of sol- 
diers of Boone county held a big meeting here last night, 
with R. R. Shiel, of Indianapolis, as the speaker. Mr. Shiel 
said in part: 

"I am informed, since coming to your city, that the 
Populist orator has been telling you that your county has 
been growing poorer since the great ' crime of '73'; that 
you have been going backward instead of forward. Now, 
there is just about as much truth in that as there is in any- 
thing else that these Populist campaigners tell, from Bryan 
down to the government financier on the street corner, who 
hns his wife keeping boarding house and has not done a 



With the Beef Trust 279 

day's work for five years. I asked your auditor to give me 
the appraised value for taxes of all the property in Boone 
county in 1870 and also in 1896, in order that I might see 
whether or not you had been going backwards. I find, ac- 
cording to his figures, the appraised value in 1870 was 
$4,772,980, and in 1896 $14,706,695, a gain of $9,933,715 in 
twenty-six years. Now, you see you have not been getting 
poorer, and that looks like a wonderful increase in the ap- 
praised value, but it is nothing compared with the increase 
of the silver miners. I see that Senator Stewart, of Nevada, 
has made from his silver mines, $40,000,000, and Senator 
Jones $25,000,000. Senator Stewart making over four times 
as much as all the increase in value in your whole county, 
and Senator Jones more than twice as much. Certainly you 
can see why they are for the free and unlimited coinage of 
silver, and I have no doubt if Senator Jones or Senator 
Stewart were to come to Boone county to make a speech, or 
their emissaries, Mr. Harvey or Mr. Bryan, they would tell 
you that you have been getting poorer all the time. I saw 
an account in the New York World (a Democratic paper) 
the other day stating that there were thirty silver mine own- 
ers who had made $681,000,000. Now, while the farmers of 
Boone county have made wonderful progress, it is nothing 
to compare with the progress made by the silver mine own- 
ers. If Bryan were to tell the farmers of Indiana the truth 
he would say that the silver section was the enemy's coun- 
try instead of the Bast. Every carload of corn, wheat, cat- 
tle, sheep or hogs, the products of Boone county, goes to the 
enemy's country for consumption. Every engine pulling a 
trainload of the products of Boone county is turned East, 
hauling the same for consumption into what Bryan terms 



280 Twenty Years in Hell 

the enemy's country. Who ever heard of a carload or a 
trainload of the products of Boone county, or any other 
county in Indiana, being shipped for consumption into the 
silver-producing territory? When I first came to your 
county in 1867, before the ' crime of 73/ you had but five 
miles of gravel road running out of this city, and but ten 
miles in the entire county. I understand that you now have 
something near 200 miles. You then rode horseback over 
corduroy roads; you now ride in carriages over gravel 
roads. This readily proves how you have been going back- 
wards. If Bryan, Stewart, Jones and Harvey can gull you 
farmers into voting for Bryan and electing him president 
they will make $100,000,000 in the next twenty years, while 
you will be in great luck if you remain where you are. What 
you want is a home market for your product, and the silver 
bullion producer doesn't furnish it." 



BRIGHT OUTLOOK FOR TENNESSEE. 



INDIANA MAN THINKS STATE BEST IN UNION IN MANY RESPECTS 



HILLS AND MOUNTAINS WILL BE COVERED WITH SHEEP IN TEN 

YEARS. 



[Nashville, Tenn., Banner. Feb. 23, 1909.] 

Col. Roger R. Shiel, of Indianapolis, a multi-millionaire, 
and at one time one of the largest stock dealers in the United 
States, stopped over in Nashville Friday, Saturday and a 
part of Sunday on his way from Little Rock, Ark., to Wash- 
ington. Col. Shiel is one of the fathers of meat inspection 
and the pure food law, first under President Harrison. In 



With the Beef Trust 281 

1888 he had practical charge of the Palmer House and was 
selected by President Harrison to conduct the convention 
at Minneapolis in 1892. He is also the author of "Commis- 
sion on Country Life/' a brief referring to farm and farm 
products, which has a wide circulation. Colonel Shiel thinks 
there is no place like the South, and speaks optimistically 
of the future of the South, and especially of Tennessee. 

"There is no place," he said, "in the Union that can 
come nearer diversifying its industries than Tennessee. 
You can raise anything on a farm here from a grapevine to 
an apple tree, and do it better than anywhere else. The 
fact is, the hen in Tennessee will lay two eggs where the 
hen in Iowa or New York will lay one, and with eggs selling 
at thirty cents a dozen will pay for herself at the most in 
thirty days. 

"Middle Tennessee is far advanced in the raising of cat- 
tle and hogs, and is the only state in the South that is, in 
this respect, with the exception of parts of Kentucky and 
Northern Missouri. This section of the state can develop 
these resources still further by proper breeding. 

' ' Tennessee has a great interest in the building up of the 
waterways, coal and iron industries, and there is no state in 
the union that can develop the farm industry better than 
Tennessee. The South is, however, somewhat behind in 
the use of scientific agricultural methods. In my travels 
through this section and also in Cuba, I saw the farmers 
still plowing with wooden mould board as they did in Indi- 
ana sixty or seventy years ago. 

"Mississippi has got possibly a larger and better body 
of land in the Yazoo valley, one-half of which is unculti- 
vated, than any other State. Arkansas, too, has a large body 



282 Twenty Years in Hell 

of uncultivated land, but Little Rock is one of the liveliest 
towns I have been in and has one of the best hotels I have 
visited during my travels. 

"Tennessee is fast getting away from her slow, ultra- 
conservative methods, and in the near future she will be in- 
viting people to come here from all over the world to help 
diversify her industries. The grape, apple and fruit peas- 
ants of France will be covering the mountains of East Ten- 
nessee with their fruits. The greatest possibility in Ten- 
nessee is the sheep, and it is also true that as much blue- 
grass can be raised in Tennessee as in any other State in 
the Union. Bermuda grass can also be grown with success 
in the northern portion of the State and alfalfa in any part 
of it. 

' ' It is my prediction that in less than ten years the hills 
and mountains of Tennessee will be covered with sheep, the 
same as in West Virginia, where twenty years ago they had 
none, and they will be of the highest grade. Montana is a 
great sheep State today, but twenty or thirty years ago she 
had very few, and Tennessee is as well adapted to sheep 
growing as Montana, You can breed earlier lambs in Ten- 
nessee than in any Northern State, and as you can there- 
fore get them to market earlier you can obtain better prices 
for them. The lamb can be marketed at least two months 
earlier from Tennessee than from Montana, Dakota, Ohio 
or West Virginia, as there are only a few months in the 
year too severe for the young lambs, and the grass will grow 
practically the whole winter if it is protected from shade 
and properly drained. 

' ' The main trouble with Tennessee has been that she has 
been unable to get away from her politics, but has permitted 



With the Beef Trust 283 

a few selfish politicians to stunt her growth. I am not a 
prohibitionist, but I am against brewery rule, and if we 
must have prohibition to control the breweries, godspeed it. ' ' 



RHODY SHIEL 'S CHOICE. 



HE IS FOR PERRY S. HEATH FOR UNITED STATES SENATOR. 



Rhody Shiel has entered the senatorial race. No, he is 
not a candidate, but he has expressed his choice. He has 
named his man. It is Perry S. Heath, first assistant post- 
master-general. 

"Perry Heath is a man," said Mr. Shiel last night, 
"who, when you write a letter to him asking for something, 
sits down and tells you in reply that the matter will be at- 
tended to at once. And it is attended to. You get results, 
and it is results you want. 

"Now with your man Fairbanks and some others you 
have there, when you write to them for anything you get 
a nice little note telling you that yours of a certain date has 
been received and contents noted and the matter will re- 
ceive attention in due time, and that is the last you hear of 
it. No results. Now, which kind of a man do you want — 
one you can get results from or one that tells you ' yours re- 
ceived and contents noted?' For my part I want results. 
That's why I am for Heath." 

R. A. Brown, clerk of the supreme court, was standing 
near, and with some warmth he replied : 

"We don't want any more Ohio domineering of Indi- 
ana politics. "We have too much of that already." 

"What do you mean by that?" asked Mr. Shiel. 



284 Twenty Years in Hell 

"Why, Heath represents the administration and he 
would be nothing but an administration candidate. The 
trouble with you is, Rhody, that you are looking after the 
pie counter, and nothing else." 

"You don't, though, do you?" retorted Mr. Shiel. 
"Why, you have had your mouth full of teats for fifteen 
years. One hasn't satisfied you. You have to have a whole 
mouthful at the same time." Bob admitted the joke was 
on him. 

The talk of Heath is beginning to be commented upon as 
being significant. It is recalled that for several days a well- 
known Republican who is probably nearer to Senator Fair- 
banks than any other man, not excepting A. W. Wishard, 
has been throwing out hints of a coming dark horse. This 
talk taken in connection with Rhody Shiel 's position is 
being regarded as possibly significant. It is generally be- 
lieved by the friends of Mr. Shiel that he gets inspiration 
from some source and hence his talk for Heath is received 
with more than amusement by the more thoughtful. Rhody 
assures his hearers (and they are always many) that his 
man will cut a considerable figure in the fight. 



The Indianapolis Sentinel, Thursday, May 5, 1898. 

Ex-President Harrison's speech at Camp Mount on 
Tuesday was a gem. The American case has not, to our 
knowledge, been stated more concisely or more strongly 
than in the following: 

We could not escape the compact. Spanish rule had be- 
come effete. We dare not say that we have God's commis- 
sion to deliver the oppressed the world around. To the 
distant Armenians we could send only the succor of a 
faith that overcomes death, and the alleviations which the 



With the Beef Trust 285 

nurse and the commissary can give. But the oppressed 
Cubans and their starving women and children are knock- 
ing at our doors ; their cries penetrate our slumbers. They 
are closely within what we have defined to be the sphere 
of American influence. We have said, ' ' Look to us, not to 
Europe," and we cannot shrink from the responsibility 
and the dangers of this old and settled American policy. 
We have, as a nation, toward Cuba the same high commis- 
sion which every brave-hearted man has to strike down the 
ruffian who in his presence beats a woman or child and will 
not desist. For what if not for this does God make a man 
or a nation strong? 



From the Louisville Times. 

'RHODY" SHIBL IN LOUISVILLE. 



GIVEN MUCH ATTENTION DURING HIS STAY IN THE BIG KEN- 
TUCKY CITY. 

The Hon. R. R. Shiel, a leading cattle and hog dealer of 
Indianapolis, is in the city. He came down Saturday night 
and spent Sunday with Mr. Charles Byrne and other lead- 
ing stockmen. He will return home this evening. 

Mr. Shiel, who is better known as ' ' Rhody, ' ' was for 
many years a leading politician at the Indiana capital, and 
is one of the best-known men in the State. At present he 
is fighting what is termed the " trust," and is buying hogs 
for Boston packers. He is meeting with great success, and 
most of the Indiana farmers ship to him. 

Mr. Shiel is well pleased with his trip to 'Louisville, and 
he was given much attention during his stay. The visit 
may have an important bearing on the hog market, as Mr. 
Shiel is probably now the largest buyer in the West, outside 
of Chicago. 



INDEX, 



PAGE 

Introduction 3 

Biography of Roger R. Shiel 7 

Preface 13 

Mr. R. R. Shiel's Letter to the President 21 

Commission's Letter to Mr. Shiel 29 

Mr. Shiel's Letter to the Commission 29 

Live Stock in Denmark, etc 31 

Conditions in Ohio 33 

Conditions in Indiana 38 

Conditions in Illinois 54 

General Observations 55 

Mr. Skelton's Letter 74 

Fruit Question, etc 76 

Letters of Individual Expression 79 

Mr. Shiel's Second Letter to the Commission 113 

1. The Pennsylvania Railroad Co 114 

2. N. E. Hollis & Co. 132 

3. Nelson Morris & Co 144 

4. Swift & Co 148 

5. Hammond & Co 153 

6. Schwarzchild & Sulzberger 154 

7. Kingan & Co 156 

8. Armour & Company 166 

9. Cudahy & Company 167 

10. National Packing Company 168 

Cincinnati and Louisville Packers 169 

Conditions in the South 175 

Prominent Men I Have Known 183 

Richard Webber's Sixtieth Birthday 187 

Death of Richard Webber 194 

A Word for the Soldiers 210 



(287) 



288 Index 

PAGE 

Letters on the Trusts 212 

1. To Attorney-General Moody 212 

2. To Governor Chas. R. Deneen 215 

3. To Congressman Cruinpacker . . . 217 

4. To Mr. E. C. Swift 220 

5. To Hon. J. W. Wadsworth 224 

Items from My Newspaper Scrapbook .227-285 

1. R. R. Shiel Shut Out 227 

2. Statement by Shiel & Co 228 

3. One Day's Transactions 230 

4. Who These Men Are 231 

5. Get Markets from Shiel 232 

6. Going to Start Anew 233 

7. How to Ship Stock - 234 

8. As to Weighing Scales 235 

9. New Turn in Hog War : . . . '. 236 

10. Notice to Shippers and Dealers 237 

11. Shiel Company's Reply 238 

12. Combine Broken 239 

13. Want to Compromise 241 

14. Stock Yards Controversy 243 

15. Mr. Shiel's Letter 245 

16. Letter from Mr. Squire 247 

17. Mr. Shiel's Proposition 248 

18. No Conspiracy 249 

Speeches by Mr. Roger R. Shiel 251 

1. Thirty-one Years' Experience 251 

2. To the Farmers 258 

3. Oratory at Noonday 261 

4. Masses and Classes 263 

5. Rhody Shiel's Talk 266 

6. Patriotic Rhody Shiel 269 

7. Mr. Shiel's New Speech 270 

8. Lesson in Confidence 274 

9. Silverites Exposed 278 

Mr. Roger K. Shiel's Interviews and Newspaper Opinions. .280-285 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

019 566 936 3 



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